Using web-searching to solve Misinformation

Science, Engineering, & Tech Security
1

Hi All,

I'm a relatively new Forum lurker/user/poster and fan/supporter of LevelOneTechs - started following around August 2016 and saw the rebirth happen in all its glory.

Given the more prevalent misinformation and fake news type of productions available on the internet and real life, I do wonder if anyone knows of information like FRAVIA+ produced, wherein online tutorials or "lores" exist to improve web searches, crack reality and advertisements.

If there's not much out there for people to consume on this subject, how does the community feel about maybe trying to build this type of information up again?

Thanks,

Sarandraith

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Hi Sarandraith, first of all welcome.

I'm not familiar with lores but seems interesting.

Also internet is real life, maybe even more real than the horrible, terrible and also not good afk.

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Thanks for the welcome @ipushpeople,

LOL You're right; the distinction between the realities has blurred into being a fine line of lesser evils.

I can't recall exactly how I found FRAVIA+, but I can remember that it was around 1998/99 whilst looking for a better way of finding stuff on the internet at University. His essays and basic info on how to improve web searching brought a true computing newbie into subjects such as reverse engineering, cracking and reality cracking.

In fact, it was a time when Google was one in a million search engines and my go-to search site was Surfwax.com LOL!
Suffice to say, the site was an eye-opener at the way it was written and what it promised to the diligent student... Which I was not, unfortunately. So I never picked up all the skills the site gives.

The primary author himself is an interesting dude - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fravia - and his works (thankfully still hosted online, in archive) still seem a rich source, even with the decade plus of advancement in computing.

http://searchlores.co/
http://search.lores.eu/indexo.htm (European mirror)

1 Like
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Who exactly would be trusted to decide what is or isn't misinformation?

The only solution is to have free and open access to all information with zero external control mechanisms and then people can decide for themselves what is bs or not. You can't make a valid decision if you're not in possession of all available data. If anyone or group applies a filter you can be sure a bias will exist and if they have an agenda it will be pushed.

What you need is a healthy education system that's designed to teach people how to think, not what to think. That will never happen all the time the State or interest groups (religious schools etc.) are involved with indoctrinating the minds that pass through their systems.

A rudimentary understanding of the major fallacies is often enough to weed out a large percentage of bs presented as news. Knowing them isn't enough though, you have to constantly apply them to every source of information like an antivirus system for your mind.

Another thing is the use of proper language and establishing the definitions of the words being used against us, generally these words are emotive devices, void of any true meaning or substance.

Laziness and apathy are also major components. You can't expect someone is going to tell you the truth, especially if they have a vested interested in keeping you ignorant. If something makes you feel uneasy and raises a red flag that's a cue to start looking deeper for the stuff they don't want you to know. The problem is we all to often shrug it of unquestioned and the misinformation takes root among the greater collective mind set. And then we find ourselves living in the fucked up world we see today.

Looking at the news it would seem that the usual suspects are busy solving your web-searching filter problem in order to remove misinformation. Google and Facebook are already getting on board with that program so no one need worry about the validity of data in future.

What we need is a decentralised open source community driven search engine, to replace/prevent the dominance of information control systems like google. That search engine needs to provide access to every scrap of information available to us unfiltered, and then we the users can apply our own filters to refine the results for ourselves. Any other system will lead to a very bad situation, and that's exactly where we are headed in the real world right now!

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@QEMM, that's what the site espouses in great detail; using web searches to find exactly what you're looking for, through a structured before, during and after of considered searching.

Although I didn't/haven't learned all it can teach, the base ethos is learning to define what you want to find and teaching the tools to reach that defined state you're looking for. I've always felt that this was a valuable resource for myself and I thought I'd share its wisdom with the Forum :-)

A quote from the Warning Page http://searchlores.co/warning.html:

The correct 'use' of this site will give you remarkable power. After some study (a couple of months, usually... YMMV) you'll be able to find anything on the web.
Any image, any film, any software, any music, any solution, any book. Anything that has been produced by humans on our planet, in any language, provided it can be digitized, duh...

A good seeker can be a quite dangerous beast, though. Those that do learn how to search, which is what this site is intended to teach, will be able to find on the web -if needs be- ANY KNOWLEDGE, and thus -also- zillions of possible exploits. Innocent ones, milder ones, and quite nasty ones as well.

You will learn here how to search, you will have to decide yourself what to search. This site offers raw, free knowledge. As always, sheer power can be used for 'evil' deeds and/or for 'good' deeds (let's leave aside, for now, the rather complex question of what would be 'evil' and what would be 'good' nowadays, just use your own parameters).

Spring in, if you dare! Again, you have been warned: at first you'll only fathom the existence of the abyss, only later you'll understand its real depth and width.

[Edited in after 1st save]
I agree others may try and enforce their view of what's true or not; I personally don't use Facebook and Google, on the other hand is almost the de-facto Search and I do use that... But I don't take what it brings up as the definitive answer, on many of the searches I make that have a greater complexity to them.

What I hoped by posting this, is to introduce a source that's helped me be a better web searcher, far better than the more casual user and hopefully share some knowledge to help others find what they seek, whether that's a better recipe or a better source of information.

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I'm not familiar with the site, author or information but that extract is dead on the money and I will try and make time to investigate further. It's vital that we retain access to all the information accessible to us...especially now that there is a well funded proactive effort to close down our access to those sources of information.

Thanks for sharing.

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Like you I don't use facebook and I try to avoid using google. Unfortunately I do tend to use google as part of my search process but I would rather not have to do that, especially given their recent move to deal with misinformation. If cnn, bbc and new york times results start appearing on the third or fourth result pages I may have a better opinion of them. But I think it's pretty safe to assume we wont see any of the major sources of misinformation and out 'n out lies relegated or removed from google's results.

The other problem is that we are edge case users and the controls aren't directly aimed at us, their primary target is the mass of people using their systems, many of whom seem to think google is the internet ffs. That's why we need something easy for people to use that sets them free.

Well you have my attention for what it's worth and I look forward to seeing where it goes.