We are awash with claims
Would a wiki of claim checking help?
Would a wiki of claim checking help?
Caveat: everyone, politicians, journalists, public are doing their best, but we're not using the right mediums to make sense of these problems. Either collectively or individually, we can't use the old tools to solve all of the new types of problems we're facing.
Problem
We are awash with claims about how the world works. And very little way to sense checking them quickly.
I'm not against these claims per se. I think in the right context they are the way for us to collectively increase our understanding of our world and our role in shaping it. But we need to be able to check them.
To sense check most of these claims would take days.
We need to accelerate this process to minutes.
Solution?
Do we have an open wiki of fact checking? Where any claim can be searched for, the numbers behind it found and the claim upheld or refuted?
Examples
This is a [digital garden](https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history) of claims.
Please send me your own claims.
Claim: Air Source Heat Pump Can Be Powered with a Small Solar Array
An air source heat pump mostly powered by solar panels on a building in East Anglia
Source: UK homes to get £15bn for solar and green tech to cut energy bills; BBC
Claim Validity: Not Sure Yet
Initial thoughts: If the building fabric is very well insulated then maybe?
But on a dark winter's day in the UK, those solar panels will deliver X energy, which is sufficient / insufficient to power the heat pump.
Claim: Gas Prices Are Soaring; Huge Increase
If this bit on the right is huge, what do you call the other bit on the left?! #energy #adjectives
— AJP (James Phillips) (@ajamesphillips.com)March 19, 2026 at 11:16 PM
[image or embed]
Conversation Upgrade #5 - UK Gas Prices
Claim Validity: They're Up 80%, But Soaring?
Rests on the definition of soaring and huge. But otherwise this seems like a false claim.
There Are Even Claims on My Toilet Paper and in My Shoes!
How do I check these claims?
