We live in a time when people tell enormous lies and masses accept them, no questions asked. That ship has sailed and sank to the bottom of the sea.

I agree with the top comment -- critical thinking skills and a base of essential knowledge is the most important thing to teach our young.

have we ever not lived in a time like that?

I believe there were periods where epistemology was not broadly equated with pedantry as is the case today when one points out epistemic issues in consensus (aka: "the") reality.

While I do agree with this, I don't think assignments made by humans are immune to this either. There are assignments I had that contained bias and errors. Some I caught but I'm sure there's plenty I didn't.

All lessons are made by neural networks. (Mostly biological).

Much more serious than the small lies are the big lies that the neural networks in one group teach their children about the neural networks on the other side of the ocean.

I wonder if all of this high technology will ever result in better communication between neural networks. Within a generation or two, it should be possible to instantly transfer high bandwidth neural activity globally. I wonder if this will change things.

Blatant lies fool no one.

Subtle ones fool every one.

Agree on the second part. The first part so, well, I am affraid that might not be as true as it used to be...

You are right.

I was actually expecting pushback on the second line :)

Part of the assignment here is to identify those lies and correct them.