←back to thread

CDC data are disappearing

(www.theatlantic.com)
749 points doener | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
breadwinner ◴[] No.42902252[source]
Data is the ultimate Fact Check. This is a President that's adamantly opposed to fact checking [1] and has even coerced Facebook to drop fact checking. Of course they don't want data on government sites that disprove their "alternate facts".

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4920827-60-minutes-tru...

replies(10): >>42902356 #>>42902413 #>>42902434 #>>42902630 #>>42902793 #>>42902978 #>>42903439 #>>42903684 #>>42904050 #>>42918244 #
djfobbz ◴[] No.42903684[source]
Data isn't the ultimate fact check - it's just numbers waiting to be twisted. Bias, bad sources, and cherry-picking turn 'facts' into fiction. Real fact-checking needs brains, not just bar graphs.
replies(3): >>42903756 #>>42903760 #>>42904445 #
darth_avocado ◴[] No.42904445[source]
> Data isn’t the ultimate fact check

But it is. Numbers can be twisted, but it they can easily be verified. Bias, bad sources and cherry picking can allow you to tell stories, but the data will allow you to verify those stories are indeed facts. Brain can’t really fact check things that don’t have any data.

replies(4): >>42904555 #>>42904860 #>>42905094 #>>42905274 #
listenallyall ◴[] No.42904860[source]
Can data, or AI, tell me definitively who the MVP of the NFL was this season? Allen, Lamar, Saquon? The numbers certainly help when making comparisons, but they aren't the entire story, different people will come to different conclusions based on the exact same set of facts.
replies(2): >>42905078 #>>42911742 #
1. johnnyanmac ◴[] No.42911742[source]
In theory, yes. But we're more approaching philosophy with Laplace's demon at this point.

A more realistic example: we can theoretically predict the weather weeks in advance. In reality, it's pointless because there so much data needed to collect for that, and so many events to away the weather, that's its impractical past a few days in the future.