this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation

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Things are going downhill far too quickly. Attention grabbing headlines and no useful content from articles rule the internet.

It makes no sense.

I cannot understand if this is due to AI, corporate greed, propaganda, or a mixture of all of the above.

I love exploring new and creative content. It brings me such great joy to learn new things.

Recently I've felt that I've been backed into a corner on every platform/service that I use and can't get out of getting the same spoon-fed content they think I'll like rather than allowing me to actually discover something fun and new.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Was ancient Greek mythology particularly helpful for them to understand the world around them?

Well, I'd say their polytheistic structure made them more open minded and assigning reasons to events even if they're made up made them look for causality. Not that I'm an expert by any means but I'm sure it wouldn't stick around if it was useless.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Utility is one thing. Utility can be anything, it can assist in the pursuit of some goal that someone, somewhere, has.

Specifically though, I asked if it helped them with understanding the world around them. Not if it helped them do anything at all. I'm sure it helped them do quite a lot, starting with such simple things as passing the time with quality storytelling. Just for starters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. Also, it wouldn't even need to be useful for the general populace. It might've been a controlling tool like monotheistic religions in the middle age or a good way to dupe some wealthy people into buying cheap trinkets.