Last week I’ve finally managed to start reading Chris Anderson‘s much acclaimed book The Long Tail.  At some point I arrived on the page where Chris was talking about ‘The Wikipedia Phenomenon’.  It tells the story about Jimmy Wales‘ controversial ambition to build ‘A repository of knowledge to rival the ancient library of Alexandria‘.  This idea was deemed preposterous in 2001 when it started, but today Wikipedia is the largest Encyclopedia  on Earth ! 

As comparison,  Brittanica has about 80,000 articles and Encarta has 36,000, while Wikipedia has more than 1 million articles in English alone (3.5 million if include 75 other languages) !  Sure, Britannica and Encarta could be considered as more authoritative than Wikipedia, as one study reported that for example in 42 entries on science topics there were on average 4 errors per entry in Wikipedia and 3 in Britannica, but the great thing is those errors would be rectified almost immediately in Wikipedia, while you have to wait for the next edition of Britannica to be printed.  Personally, I just like the ease of use the speed of searching of Wikipedia, in contrast to opening those big Encyclopedia book (though Britannica has an online version now).

And then the book came to this paragraph, and I quote:

“What makes Wikipedia really extraordinaryis that it improves over time, organically healing itself as if its huge and growing army of tenders were an immune system, ever vigilant and quick to respond to anything that threatens the organism.  And like a biological system, it evolves, selecting for traits that help it stay one step ahead of the predators and pathogens in its ecosystem.”

” … And like a biological sytem, it evolves, ….”

What does that remind you of ? SKYNET !!

If there is one place where the ‘machine’ can learn and becoming self-aware it’s here, the well of knowledge of the entire Human Race, inside Wikipedia.  This is the place, one can learn about the history, strengths and weaknesses of humankind, and while still on this topic, I just want to say, if I were an alien race gearing up to conquer earth, I just need to check Wikipedia (after Google maybe), to plan my conquest :)

So, anybody seen the latest trailer of Terminator Salvation ?  What do you think about Bale playing Connor ?