[jjulius]

As others have echoed elsewhere in these responses, this idea can very easily be applied to the broader internet (eg, your Google searches) as well. Not everything is answered with Google. To your point about figuring out a hiking path, I backpack very regularly - search engines consistently return the same sets of results, and I've found wonderful places by talking to friends or others in the community that I, to this day, don't come across when searching for things online.

Just because it gets results doesn't mean there isn't more out there, and that there isn't a benefit to engaging with your community.

I see the same sameness in the results when I use AI to explore such subjects. There's a certain level of homogeneity that comes with relying on Google, Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, and AI for our answers.