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  1. #1
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    Default Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    A lot of us browse the web and read numerous articles on the internet to increase our knowledge. But do we ever reach a point where we have learned enough? Would it actually be better for us to "unlearn" things that we have learned? Would we be better of if there was some kind of means to erase knowledge of things that do nothing but traumatize and demoralize us? I'm not saying ignorance is bliss, but if there was a means to basically unlearn some of the messed up things we know, would it be better to do it?

    I'm not of course talking about horrific google items like 1 Man 1 Jar, 2 Girls 1 Cup or Goatse (although I wish I could unlearn those things too, and I only read their synopsis without actually searching for them). I'm talking about knowing how many children are kidnapped every year, the percentage of children in South Africa who suffer sexual abuse, how many years the earth has left that is uninhabitable, how much the gap between rich and poor has widened in the last two decades, what percentage of our government is corrupt, and other items that fill us with despair that we can do nothing about. These are just examples of course.

    Or is this a pointless wish and is it better to know bad things, make peace with them, as opposed to remain blissfully ignorant?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    I know a couple people who could get provincial colours for ignorance and they seem a lot happier than me. May be a coincidence but I don't think so.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    Surely you mean "see" and not "learnt"
    Do not wish to unlearn anything, unsee, many things, un-feel, just as many, but can not say same for learnt.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    For the wise man knowledge is handy, irrespective of the connotation. Used correctly it makes a lot of things easier.

    For the ignorant it does not matter.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."
    John Stuart Mill, 1863

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    Quote Originally Posted by SLR View Post
    "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."
    John Stuart Mill, 1863
    Ah, Mill. One of my favorite philosophers.

  7. #7
    User Marius@Jizni's Avatar
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    If you need to take a straightforward decision, more information is always better.

    If you need to balance probabilities or sides, balanced information is always better. And the way things are structured these days, the rabbit hole of more information usually leads to more imbalanced information. Whether you keep clicking on the same thread, allow Google or Facebook to determine your feeds or listen to the vocal minority on your neighbourhood Whatsapp group, someone is feeding you junk. It's not the things that you don't know that will get you. It's the things that you "know" that isn't really so.

    And you're not immune to it. The heuristic that we are battling is known as availability bias: The easier it is to recall something, the more real we perceive it to be. So, just by allowing yourself to listen to impartial views you allow yourself to know more but understand less.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Learning versus unlearing: IS knowledge of things a blessing or a curse?

    Quote Originally Posted by Marius@Jizni View Post
    If you need to take a straightforward decision, more information is always better.

    If you need to balance probabilities or sides, balanced information is always better. And the way things are structured these days, the rabbit hole of more information usually leads to more imbalanced information. Whether you keep clicking on the same thread, allow Google or Facebook to determine your feeds or listen to the vocal minority on your neighbourhood Whatsapp group, someone is feeding you junk. It's not the things that you don't know that will get you. It's the things that you "know" that isn't really so.

    And you're not immune to it. The heuristic that we are battling is known as availability bias: The easier it is to recall something, the more real we perceive it to be. So, just by allowing yourself to listen to impartial views you allow yourself to know more but understand less
    .
    Hear hear! Even supposedly smart well informed people can program themselves by passively absorbing what they are pushed via their feeds. We are not nearly as sophisticated as we would like to believe.

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