Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by brabel on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @02:36AM (#45665586)

In 1000 years Sweden went from a Viking culture to an egalitarian, tolerant, multicultural society. Just imagine how much change you can have in the next 1000 years. 50 years ago you guys had basically an apartheid and women’s place was the kitchen.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by dguest on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @03:54AM (#45666043)

35 years ago South Africa had the apartheid, and now they outrank the US on a The Economist's Democracy Index [1]. So yeah, things move fast.

Nitpick: The US Voting Rights Act became law in 1965 [2], which is more like 60 years ago. Not sure if that's what you were getting at with "basically an apartheid" but it was the closest concrete landmark near your 50 year timeline.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by alexitorg on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @05:49AM (#45666821)

Your link shows that South Africa ranks below the US. It is ranked 43rd in the world, vs the USA which is at 28 (in 2024 the latest year).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by dguest on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @01:30PM (#45672401)

good point: I'd fix the post but it's too old. Well hopefully it gets downvoted into oblivion soon.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by incompatible on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @06:34AM (#45667129)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_Unit...

(since posting Wikipedia links seems appropriate.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by DocTomoe on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @02:52AM (#45665680)

The problems with that argument are that first, the Viking culture was mostly rural and agricultural, the raiding and pillaging was a tiny side-effect that mostly happened during times of economic hardship, not as a way of life ... and that today's Sweden is rapidly recessing back to a less-tolerant, anti-multicultural society for many reasons. You also conveniently ignore the much more bloody 'military superpower' phase in the 1600s.

It’s not Ragnar Lodbrok turning into ABBA. It’s a mostly peaceful peasant society getting tossed around by history until it became a mostly peaceful service economy - and the shaking never really stopped.

History is not a straight progress line. Ask the Romans.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by miningape on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @03:26AM (#45665867)

Yes! It annoys me to no end when people pretend that time is developing us into a perfect image - we're just the latest generation in a long string of improvements. Making it seem like development is predetermined.

Ask a medieval peasant and he wouldnt even be able to describe how his life is different from his father's.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by brabel on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @07:24AM (#45667465)

If you really want to be accurate about history in what is now Sweden, let’s also mention the horrific mass graves discovered in Birka and surroundings which seems to imply that massacring whole villages, women and children included , was commonplace even before Viking times. The later imperialist period seems less brutal to me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by int_19h on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @11:13PM (#45677800)

Pre-agricultural societies are generally much more brutal because you need a lot of territory to feed relatively few people. Agriculturalists can conquer other people and make them work for them in a way that doesn't scale for hunters-gatherers. The consequence is that the combatant/noncombatant distinction is much more blurry, and genocide is often an explicit goal of the war.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by csmpltn on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @02:54AM (#45665694)

> In 1000 years Sweden went from a Viking culture to an egalitarian, tolerant, multicultural society.

That «multiculturalism» is already responsible for undoing the changes you’re describing here. Sweden is regressing into a medieval, middle-eastern ghetto faster than you’d think - as do other parts of Europe.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by reddalo on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @03:20AM (#45665833)

I agree with you. The main problem is that we don't have many politicians that want to tackle immigration in a serious and responsible way. So people end up giving votes to the far right.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by brabel on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @07:18AM (#45667418)

Yeah I think I should have been more clear that countries change a lot and sometimes even revert back to a much earlier state … it just sounds funny to me how the country of bloody thirsty warriors that pillaged faraway countries is now maybe the most peaceful place on Earth… at least if you ignore the bombings and gang culture that has developed in the last decade or so, but those are imported from elsewhere, which of course doesn’t mean it won’t become a feature of the country for decades ahead which may bring back some of the image of ruthlessness associated with the old times.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summar... by jerojero on Wednesday October 22, 2025 @08:41AM (#45668179)

I invite you to read a little bit of history.

These sort of hyper exaggerated comments help no one. Not to mention "other parts of Europe" were literally Islamic for hundreds of years.

[ Parent | on HN ]