What happens once the sum of all human knowledge is reached?

It seems that as long as humans generate new knowledge, the vision will /never/ be fulfilled.

So maybe the question is, what happens when the backlog is done being processed?

There are an infinite number of infinities.

Just felt like saying that.

Maybe it will be like Communism and "the state will wither away" ??

It'll be like Asimov's "The Last Question"... once the cosmic computer has fully integrated all possible knowledge, the computer will become God Himself and say "Let there be light."

So more Final Encyclopedia than Galactic Encyclopedia then?

I think the thing we have to be really concerned about is the possibility of wikipedia becoming self-aware once it has gained sufficient knowledge, as in the film Dark Star.

Luckily though I think the powers that be have managed to circumvent that possibility by recruiting as many schoolchildren to the administrator corps as they feel that public opinion will tolerate. Almost by definition, schoolkids know diddley-squat, and so they can't possibly feed the monster.

The sum of all human knowledge will have been reached when I get around to creating my masterpiece article: [[Hotel toilet paper folding]]. Once this article is written and in place (I've already done the research), the ultimate in Wikipedia inclusiveness of human knowledge will surely have been obtained. As awareness of this article spreads throughout the Wikipedia community, it will become glaringly evident that, if Wikipedia has an article on this subject, it will surely have every other article worth having in any encyclopedia. Then editors, realizing the futility of their pathetic hopes for future articles, will stop writing new ones for the encyclopedia. For an as yet uncalculated period of time, editors will work on articles to get them all up to FA status, but Wikipedia will have begun an entropy which will gradually result in Wikipedians migrating to other websites and pastimes. I think Parchesi will see a surge in popularity, but we'll just have to see.

I will announce on Jimbo's talk page when I have completed this ultimate article, and tell him that if he's the last one out, please turn off the lights. I will request that he provide a picture of a well-folded roll of toilet paper, in situ, from one of the hotels he stays at.

This is my vision. And I'm just sure it will manifest itself.

I believe I saw that on Futurama. Once the brain-sphere of the brain-spawn had finally stored all knowledge and then done one last scan of itself, just to make sure, it would have completed a compendium of all facts, and could implode the universe. Perhaps this episode had Wikipedia in mind. The Scooty Puff Junior wind-up rocket certainly looked Wikipedian.

I personally lean toward the e-piphanies of Arthur Quark (T-C-L-K-R-D) , in particular, his Nine Gadshillion Sockpuppets of Ω∂.

Ja Ja

That's easy. There will always be irresponsible people out there trying to generate new knowledge, and it will be Wikipedia's responsibility to ruthlessly suppress it. No original research.

Who ever has the high score wins.

The plural of anecdote is data.

The progression goes like this: Data ⇒ Information ⇒ Knowledge ⇒ Wisdom

After Knowledge comes Wisdom, which calls for an Ethical Value System that guides the constructive and beneficial use of knowledge.

Long before Wikipedia comes anywhere close to compiling the Sum of All Human Knowledge, it would behoove the compilers to lay the Foundation of Wisdom by crafting a complementary Ethical Value System.

Out of Knowledge and Wisdom come the Bardic Arts — the ability to weave meaningful and well-told stories from the corpus of Knowledge.

A story, of course, is an anecdote.

No, the plural of anecdote is dotage.

Jon Awbrey

The amount that can be written about notable things that have already occurred or already known as of right now is, in fact, effectively infinite; logically, it can't be truly infinite, but it is infinite in the sense that it would take an inconceivable amount of time to record it all at the current rate of work. This is especially so considering that the rate of work does not seem to be increasing, and may in fact be slightly decreasing. I strongly doubt that the site has reached one-tenth of 1%, and maybe not even one-hundredth of 1%.

This question is a little like asking "what do we do when the sun burns out"? The question is irrelevant now, and in practice it will always be irrelevant.

The sum of all human knowledge is either on the Net or in all the libraries in the world. The point is not to put it all there again, but to summarise it and organise it and express it in a way that is accessible to the average English-speaking reader.

Of course, the really dumb thing about this whole thread — despite the fun I'm sure we can all have mocking it — is the continuing failure to distinguish the advertised vision from the actual agenda.

You should be asking — What will it be like when and if Wikipediots succeed in unmooring Da Bubble Text from all its anchors in Authenticity and Reality?

Jon

I suppose that if you progress in the amount and complexity of the knowledge without gaining an ethical value system along with it, that would be wisdumb?



...or, at least, bad song parodies.

Best answer yet.

The sum of all human knowledge is not accessible, or even knowable, by the narrow, insular, self-entitled people who create Wikipedia, or who contribute to WR for that matter. To say you are going to this and then "give it" to some African kid is just disgusting conceit.

The sum of all human knowledge isn't knowable by any group of people less extensive than all of humanity. It's unnecessary to accompany this sensible observation with sneering about the particular group on WP or WR, even if it's popular and trendy to do so.

They make the claim there or (some, and too many) use this forum here to advance the claim.

Because the Φantasy Bubble Bauble Φascinates the EnΦant far more than the Ugly Truth.

Jon Awbrey

Well, yeah. You gotta grind 'em out if you wanna level up.

Well, I've created it. Let the entropy (and inevitable AfD) begin!

Y'know, I always wondered why hotels did that... Good article!

Far from AfD'ing it, I think it should be featured. It's well-written, properly sourced... all it needs is a photo or two (and hopefully not one of Shankbone's, since he'd probably show the toilet paper after it had been used.) Beyond that, what's not to like?

Indeed, it does need a photo. So I've asked a certain editor who I know frequently stays at hotels to kindly help out.

It will never make the front page without an image.

Kevin, I had no idea that existed. Thanks! Wiki collaboration at its finest!

You didn't add the project boxes to the talk page. I'm not sure which wiki-project covers this subject area, perhaps WP:Inane Topics? I don't mean this as an insult, because you did a good job on the article.

WikiProject Tourism? Hmmmm. I think that's the closest one, but I'm going to keep looking.

WikiProject GoingToTheBathroom?

I added one appropriate banner.

That's a funny banner. One would hope for the ultimate WP:LAME edit war here, but probably won't happen.

We may accidentally have happened upon a lacuna in the Sum of all Human Knowlege. The DAB page for housekeeper has a redlink for housekeeper (hotel). This is the person who supervises the hotel cleaning service people, or a term for the person who actually does this service. Wikipedia covers janitors for this function in public restrooms, and discuses maids for private facilities, but quasi-public facility cleaning, particularly in the hotel/motel housekeeping service that does bathrooms, HAS NO ARTICLE. And toilet paper folding would obviously be a subarticle for it.

So, as is, the nifty Hotel toilet-paper folding article is orphaned. Even the Hotel article has links to hotel staff like the concierge, but is conspicuously missing hotel housekeeping.

This is a terrible thing. Cleaning a hotel room, particularly WHILE the guests are still in residence, is difficult. In fact, an art (as you know if you've ever stayed for more than a day in a five-star). It actually requires a human mind. A robot could (in theory) put a hotel room in order BETWEEN guests, but it takes a good cleaning service to recognize the difference between clothes on the floor, hotel towels on the floor, newspapers on the floor, food on the floor, notes on the floor, money on the floor, used condoms on the floor, and so on. And what to do with each of them.

Milton

I think this falls under Wikipedia Project : High Hanging Fruit (WP:HHF).

Ja Ja

Reminds me of a trick a cleaning lady played on a girl who had just started cleaning private houses. They explained to the girl that very posh people lived in this house and the job was not only to fold the last sheet on the roll, but before that to tear off a couple of dozen sheets and place them neatly by the side of each of the toilets (for there were many) to save the posh people the effort of tearing off the sheets themselves.

The gullible young girl did so and on leaving the house did not understand why the other girls were in tears of laughter.

She didn't turn up the next week.

Newsflush !!!

Ja Ja

Thanks, Ja, I was hoping to see that by today.