We’ve all got somebody in our lives who will forward you something, anything, no matter how stupid it is. There are still people forwarding that “Bill Gates wants to test Outlook” email, for the love of Kahless!
So the MIT Media Lab has stepped in and done something about it: invented software called “LazyTruth” that scans email for spam phrases, and immediately pops up a link to sites like Snopes debunking the entire email.
But why stop there? Let’s design more of this software for Facebook, so the next time some fourteen-year-old posts that retarded “story” about a girl getting run over by a car, there’s a pop up that says “No one cares. Also, posting this gives you zits”. And another that offers up a warning about how the political thread you’re about to post in contains no one who cares about Ron Paul.
Seriously, this could be the greatest thing to come out of MIT.
image courtesy arnold inuyaki on Flickr