ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE BASE
INTRODUCTORY TEXT1. Introduction1.1 Innovations 1.2 Contribution 2. Knowledge synthesis 2.1 Integrating information 2.2 Lack of cooperation 2.3 Wikis 2.4 Restricted circles 2.5 Lack of quality 2.6 Sequential text 3. Future plans 4. Disclaimer PAGESStatistics |
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The Conspiracy Knowledge Base is an ambitious project whose purpose goes beyond the mere necessity of compiling information. Much more than a collection of articles about or relating to conspiracy theories, it also aims to provide the best possible quality of information through the exercise of knowledge synthesis.
Active development of this project has been halted.
DOCUMENTS
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INTRODUCTORY TEXT
1. Introduction
1.1 Innovations
Why would this project be any better than a Wiki? Well, there is a big difference between compiling information for the sake of compilation itself and compiling information toward a well-defined goal. When asked about their goals, other repositories of information take pride in mentioning principles of "perfection", such as reaching a huge number of high-quality articles and making them accessible to everyone in the world, which, by the way, also implies in a huge number of translated articles. In other words, these people are dreaming of growth and growth only.
We at the CKB have learned the hard way that disembodied goals coming from "infinite growth" or "perfection" have become a plague on our modern society. According to our theory, Infinity and Perfection are paradoxical concepts, meaning that they bypass logic as we know it. Surely, what can not be understood by reason alone can not be properly defined. A project that strives to grow toward "infinity" is actually growing toward nothing, because "infinity" has never been defined.
Of course, that we don't mean that a generous amount of content is not a good thing to have. It's just that focusing only on numbers tends to result in quantity over quality. The CKB, on the other hand, tries to innovate by introducing some new approaches that might solve the problem:
- A unified theory serving as a point of reference for the organization of knowledge in a topic hierarchy.
- The use of standardized and modular text structures to enforce a truly integrative approach to knowledge organization. See Integrating information.
- More to come. See Future plans.
There is more than one way to contribute:
-
Contribution formulary
a form that appears when you click to edit any document in the knowledge base. Keep in mind that updates are not made in real-time yet. -
Forum
probably the best place to contribute until we develop a dedicated contribution system -
Concurrent Versioning System - CVS
currently not working -
E-mail:
not recommended, but what the hell... -
Yahoo group
a small experiment, but we think that nobody will join without us offering a newsletter first
2.1 Integrating information
It's absurd to think that a piece of information can survive alone. Information only becomes valuable when it can be associated with more information, meaning that it can be used inside a context. Without a context, information will be almost always meaningless. Just like an orphan that calls for his parents over and over again, decontextualized information can only be repeated several times before it vanishes forever. Many people think that the majority of information is useless, but we think otherwise. In our view, any piece of information can be made useful if given a proper treatment.
Integrating information does not necessarily mean amassing text in one place. In fact, that would be a "sterile fusion" as we like to say, because the result is neither positive nor negative. True integration of information means that information is analyzed, compared, organized and stripped from redundancy. Unfortunately, all of this is only possible when there is hard intellectual labor involved. Since most of the population remains busy merely processing information, few people are left to work on integration. Professional researchers could make a difference, but the impact of their work is greatly diminished by factors such as deadlines and money. After analyzing enough information, researchers will reach any conclusion under the sun to better appease their investors' interests. Much of the collected information in a private research is used to back up decisions concerning a small group of people, while the information itself ends archived and never released to the public.
Integrating information is also something very dependent on the discernment of the person - a keenness required to separate what is important and what is redundant. Machines can't do it and it will take some time before Artificial Intelligence can deal with the problem. Discernment should ideally come from immutable principles that the person holds as valuable. The person must be rooted on a set of principles so valuable to him/her that he/she applies them without hesitation. Without well-established principles, the person will simply take the information that appeases him/her better due to mundane and temporary factors. Additionally, when integration is done by many people, they all must be in agreement with the same principles.
Integration of information requires that one takes fragmented information and organizes it in a structure that can help us with locating and retrieving it more efficiently. This in turn will facilitate the recognition of similar ideas that can be grouped together so that their associations stand out more clearly. If fragmented information carries any knowledge at all, it is certainly complex and understood only by a few, because the more fragmented information is, the less likely that the whole picture becomes common knowledge. But with the help of a well-defined structure backing up the association of ideas, an orderly body of knowledge may arise. A structure of knowledge that is easy to manage and understand is more than half-way along the road leading to fully integrated information.
Analysis of highly organized structures of knowledge invariably leads one to start noticing what kind of knowledge is fundamental and what is derived. Many times, a piece of information will only make sense when it is seen from a certain perspective from a point of reference, which is something that can only be explained if we consider that the analyzed structure is hierarchical. In fact, all knowledge coming from natural systems seems to revolve around natural laws and many natural laws behave as expressions of unified laws. Anyway, what any field of knowledge truly does is integrate information around a single point of reference. A point of reference is some kind of profound knowledge that justifies the very existence of all secondary knowledge around it. It is an self-sufficient idea that can generate other ideas.
When analyzing integrated information, a person is able to see concepts in a variety of ways or perspectives, and thus associate a greater number of ideas in his/her mind. A great part of the effort in defining systems of classification (taxonomy) lies in integrating information. A great part of the effort in identifying facts that otherwise would be hidden lies in integrating information. We can only conclude that integration is the solution for all the problems dealing with information.
2.2 Lack of cooperation
The real challenge for the person who is researching into conspiracy theories nowadays lies in the incredible amount of information whose pieces remain incongruent and disconnected. The researcher quickly realizes that a synthesis between topics has been discouraged or even neglected. The result is several "gaps" that can be explored by disinformation agents in order to blur the line between truth and fiction.
Our problem has moved to a new level that cries for mutual cooperation and collaboration. Many researchers hold pieces of the so-called "big picture", but few get to work together. There are thousands of websites, articles, books and videos talking about the same things, yet very few people have the required time to connect the dots. To make matters worse, most people are still trapped in the wonderment of "truth seeking", but failing to realize that we are running out of time for this. The Internet is a vast tool, but its lifespan may not be very long.
2.3 Wikis
Wikis are collaboratively edited websites that use the same software behind Wikipedia. "Wiki" is Hawaiian for "quick", and it's an appropriate name in this case. They have become quite popular for the quick construction of knowledge bases, article collections and project documentations. A online knowledge base is generally associated to a certain community that wants to organize and bring their knowledge together upon a common ground. As far as the problems of collaboration go, a Wiki is a nice solution, but it does not really address the challenges of knowledge synthesis.
When a Wiki is partially or completely open to the public, it will be able to grow faster as more and more people contribute. Vandalism and other malicious attempts may happen and go unnoticed for a few days, but there is another, subtler problem that no one talks about. When we tie the openness of a Wiki with the lack of appropriate standards regarding the quality of information, as discussed in Lack of quality, the tendency is that the amount of text tends to grow faster than the amount of quality information. Even though Wikis generally ask the user to follow some guidelines when writing articles, and also enforce a certain topic structure to preserve the overall appearance of the site, a heterogeneous distribution of quality is still possible. Certainly, maintaining quality in a public environment is something extremely difficult to do without constant monitoring.
There are also contributors that cannot maintain a neutral point of view when writing articles. The addition of common sense (ordinary public opinion) often undermines the significance of conspiracy and paranormal subjects. Authorities that seek to manipulate public opinion often avoid touching on the more sensible areas in conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, bias is something that will continue to exist unless the intentions of humanity become free of prejudice.
2.4 Restricted circles
Institutions have been erected in order to tag information with a value (price) and sell it. A great effort is wasted in convincing people that information alone is valuable, but information can only gain real value when it's validated from the standpoint of the individual. Therefore, the validity of information coming from the so-called "official" sources mainly relies on the influence that these institutions have over a certain area of study. Technical articles mainly deal with someone's professional analysis, but never really touch on what the subject represents for a diverse group of people. Instead of writing down every logical step leading to his conclusions, the professional takes as granted that the reader comes from a similar background as him, thus assisting in the perpetuation of closed circles of knowledge. The result is a mishmash of jargons, technicalities and conventions. The average reader quickly becomes lost and loses interest in the topic.
2.5 Lack of quality
Quality information gives the reader assurance that it meets the needs of a set of quality standards. The standards may vary according to the domain of knowledge being investigated. Essential to a researcher is being able to find high-quality information about a domain being investigated. We are of the opinion that quality information should be solely composed of facts and data presented in the most impersonal and robotic way.
The quality of information has been sacrificed for quantity. Instead of adding to this mess, people should try to condense information until there is only a small subset of all information that is worth knowing. "But what about the variety?" you might ask. Well, the "variety" that we have today is due to the facility of producing information with less than optimal quality. People take pride in saying that we have grown to a point where complete coverage of all available information by one individual is practically impossible. This is certainly true, but only because there are too many opinions and very few solutions. One must be firmly rooted on a set of principles when producing information, otherwise one will just create more opinionated waste. No wonder the cyberspace has been turned into a wasteland.
Discussion forums have become places for people to ramble, fight or, at best, produce more divergent opinions. Many posters put their beliefs above proper scientific analysis. Actual research papers are seldom discussed due to their length and complexity coupled with the limited attention of the average reader. A simple "hurried scan" and everything is buried under one's preconceived notions. Who are we tricking, if not ourselves?
2.6 Sequential text
Today's monographs and papers still rely heavily on sequential text to convey information. A linear model is often inappropriate for the communication of complex topics full of interrelated concepts. Also, sequential text carries a rigid linear structure defined, and sometimes understandable, only by the author. Web information is somewhat less linear and more modular, but still lacks a formal structure that can be understood and used by everyone. Nonetheless, the Web revolution has clearly shown us how information can be non-linear, with multiple entry points and multiple pathways. The solution lies in a new kind of textual structure that can offer us an modular approach to what would be otherwise the same old sequential model. We need a hierarchical model based on modular semantics and whose components are titles, sentences and lists. The writer must be able to easily "plug in" a new idea, description or point of view. The reader must feel like navigating in a visual map of concepts. A set of guidelines must exist in order to make sure that the next person to alter the document will only add or correct, but never destroy. We need to make use of flexible text structures where information can be organized and compared in a variety of ways and perspectives.
3. Future plans
In the future we plan to leave the development of the CKB open to real-time editing. People will be able to create and update documents and see the results online. We have a rating system in the working that will avoid vandalism and poor quality of information. It's a revolutionary system. Stay tuned.
4. Disclaimer
This site is intended for entertainment purposes only. The author recognizes that some or all of the information may have errors or profanities. Every attempt has been made to give the proper credit to pieces of information or graphical resources that are connected to a person's authorship. Please be aware that almost all the content of this website was totally or partially extracted from various sources and most of it came from sources that have this same approach. No content that was specially produced for this website is ever highlighted as being under copyrights and this is in accordance to the beliefs of the author. The author reserves the right to publish information and/or graphics of unknown authorship or that felt into public domain. The author also recognizes the need of giving a parental advisory of 18+ when viewing this website. The author assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable for, any damages to your computer equipment or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing in this website or your downloading of any materials from this website.