fiori_musicali said:
You know, my comment was perfectly called for in the present day Internet where everyone pretends to be expert on everything just because they have evolved into semantic copy machines since the introduction of advanced search engines and most notably Wikipedia.
Fiori,
it really depends on how you perceive the way people gather and store information. For me, I remember a lot of things in a small amount of detail, and I supplant that with information sources. It might be unfortunate but it's the way we end up, after having such easy access to information. I personally don't see anything wrong with it.
So when I see Pandora, I know from a book "Greek Mythology" I read when I was younger that Pandora was a dumb girl who opened a box someone told her not to and a bunch of evil stuff came out of it. That doesn't mean I'm 100% confident in my information, and I will usually look up the item in question before talking about it, because I don't (and probably no one else does) like to be perceived as an ignorant person. Then I'll know more about that item. In this case, Pandora. And I think that's a good thing. Whether people use their knowledge for good or for needless postulating on internet bulletin boards doesn't really matter to me. I'm just glad people are learning something.
Another example - I know Aphrodite is a greek god, of love or lust or something, and the word "aphrodisiac" comes from her. This is not what I would consider a useful amount of information if I had to, say, write a paper about her, or reply to someone else's comment referencing some aspect of Aphrodite that I didn't know about. So I'd look it up.
I'm pretty sure you're just too cynical about people's intentions. When I look up information (which is pretty much all I do all day) I do it to further my knowledge so I can discuss a topic. I'm not pretending to be an expert, I'm attempting to become one. Or at least elevate my understanding above a layman's. I think that's a noble goal, whether or not you'll call me a copy machine. Besides, have you seen those new Xerox's? They're pretty nice.
[edit] and see, I wrote this article without referencing any sources, and I misused the word "supplant" when I meant "supplement." I do know the difference, but there's no way for the guy on the other side of the communication medium to know that.[/edit]
