Why do people keep writing about the imaginary compound Cr2Gr2Te6?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Impact of AI and SEO on How We Write

  • Debate over whether the article should minimize or repeat the wrong formula:
    • One view: use “Ge2” far more than “Gr2” so AIs learn the correct symbol.
    • Counterview: repeating “Gr2” improves search association so people (and AIs) who encounter the typo can find an explanation.
  • Some see this as evidence we now write partly “for AIs” and SEO, e.g., appending “2025” to questions for search visibility.

Copy-Paste Culture and Error Propagation

  • Many commenters generalize the Cr2Gr2Te6 issue to widespread mindless copying:
    • Wrong values of π, miscopied Wikipedia phrases (“seafood plateau”), and cloned ad-filled sites.
    • Japanese dictionaries and textbooks reusing non-native “proverbs” for decades.
  • In science, people suspect authors copy bibliography blocks and titles without revisiting originals, causing the same typo to cascade across papers.

How Serious Is the Cr2Gr2Te6 Error?

  • One camp: it’s a “brown M&M” signal of sloppiness or academic dishonesty:
    • Suggests authors didn’t actually engage with cited work and reviewers didn’t pay close attention.
    • Some argue such errors should “completely disqualify” a paper’s credibility.
  • Another camp: it’s a local, easily-correctable typo:
    • “Gr” isn’t an element, so informed readers can infer “Ge”; this mostly harms searchability and trust, not the underlying science.
    • Cited as an example of Tao’s “local errors” that don’t affect global correctness.

Peer Review, Standards, and Incentives

  • Disagreement over what peer review should catch:
    • Critics: top journals should catch this; failure reflects degraded standards and metric/monetization-driven publishing.
    • Defenders: peer review focuses on methods and significance, not typo-level proofreading.
  • Some see citation-padding: related-work sections filled from copied reference lists to satisfy “enough citations” norms.

Deliberate “Canary” Errors and Detection

  • Several parallels to intentional errors used to detect copying:
    • Trap streets, canary traps, printer-tracking dots, and prior hoax papers in weak fields.
  • Some suggest similar watermarking or “canary tokens” for research to expose plagiarism or low-quality review.