Annie Nymous / Daily Nexus

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

Well said, Mr. Einstein, well said. While the Information Age has spawned a plethora of opportunities to transcend political, geographic and linguistic barriers in the curiosity-driven pursuit of collective knowledge, it has also birthed avenues for the inevitable exploitation of the gullible, desperate and hateful. Thus, in an era where misinformation spreads across digital platforms like panic during finals week, I have always found solace in a place born from the desire for the truth: Quora.com.

Humans are as inquisitive as they are social. Why use one brain to answer a question when you can use many, many more? From the early hominids of the Pleistocene who investigated that fire, in fact, do be hot to the scientists who concluded that adding lead to gasoline maybe wasn’t a great idea. We have a rich and extensive history of working together to uncover the truths that lie behind our most burning of questions.

To me, Quora is the embodiment of these undeniably human attributes. Like an agora hosting Socrates and Protagoras for a debate of epic proportions, Quora is a contemporary public forum where we discuss whether drinking Smartwater will raise your IQ. And all of this is just a convenient click or tap away.

Recently, I took a dive into the wonders of the Quora community and submitted questions of my own. For instance, I asked, “What causes the Santa Ana winds?” and received answers within minutes (losers, get a life lol). One respondent explained that the winds are a product of air masses moving from areas of high to low pressure while another said they’re a result of Chancellor Yang farting at the top of Storke Tower. Who doesn’t love a diversity of opinions?

I also found that Quora is a perfect place to break down and explain complex issues using the vocabulary and logic of dunces who peaked in high school. For example, I expect nothing short of an unequivocally factual and unbiased explanation of current China-Taiwan relations from Dean the “American Entrepreneur” of Nebraska. Who better to elucidate the intricacies of Cross-Strait geopolitics than someone whose profile picture is of them wearing knockoff camo Oakleys in their Dodge Terrorizer pickup that gets three miles a gallon?

In short, Quora has democratized the creation and curation of collective knowledge like no other platform in the history of the universe. Nowhere else could you find impassioned debates around the dualistic nature of ancient zoroastrianism on one page and inquiries about how to remove one’s penis from the end of a PVC pipe on the next. Einstein would be proud.

 

Osbert Squelch is definitely not the one who got their member stuck in a PVC pipe.

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