On a very basic level, I am an algorithm receiving a stream of sensory data.
So, do you trust that sensory data? You mention reality, presumably you allow that objective reality which generates the stream of your sensory data exists. If you test your models by sensory data, then that sensory data is your “facts”—something that is your criterion for whether a model is good or not.
I am also not sure how do you deal with surprises. Does sensory data always wins over models? Or sometimes you’d be willing to say that you don’t believe your own eyes?
two discrete steps totalling just 5 years
At this rate of change we are not talking about climate. The ice core data essentially measures certain characteristics of dust in the atmosphere. Even in recorded history we had things like volcano eruptions causing a “year without summer”. It’s not like glaciers can noticeably react to weather/climate abnormalities on a scale of years, anyway.
group selection
When you said “more closely linked to genetic self-interest than to personal self-interest” did you mean the genetic self-interest of the entire species or did you mean something along the lines of Dawkins’ Selfish Gene? I read you as arguing for interests of the population gene pool. If you are talking about selfish genes then I don’t see any difference between “genetic self-interest” and “personal self-interest”.
is a series of appeals of to authority
Kinda, but the important thing is that you can go and check. In your worldview, how do you go and check yourself? Or are “streams of sensory data” sufficiently syncronised between everyone?
On a very basic level, I am an algorithm receiving a stream of sensory data.
So, do you trust that sensory data? You mention reality, presumably you allow that objective reality which generates the stream of your sensory data exists. If you test your models by sensory data, then that sensory data is your “facts”—something that is your criterion for whether a model is good or not.
I am also not sure how do you deal with surprises. Does sensory data always wins over models? Or sometimes you’d be willing to say that you don’t believe your own eyes?
I don’t understand what you mean by trust. Trust has very little to do with it. I work within the model that the sensory data is meaningful, that life as I experience it is meaningful. It isn’t obvious to me that either of those things are true any more than the parallel postulate is obvious to me. They are axioms.
If my eyes right now are saying something different than my eyes normally tell me, then I will tend to distrust my eyes right now in favor of believing what I remember my eyes telling me. I don’t think that’s the same as saying I don’t believe my eyes.
group selection
When you said “more closely linked to genetic self-interest than to personal self-interest” did you mean the genetic self-interest of the entire species or did you mean something along the lines of Dawkins’ Selfish Gene? I read you as arguing for interests of the population gene pool. If you are talking about selfish genes then I don’t see any difference between “genetic self-interest” and “personal self-interest”.
The idea of the genetic self-interest of an entire species is more or less incoherent. Genetic self-interest involves genes making more copies of themselves. Personal self-interest involves persons making decisions that they think will bring them happiness, utility, what have you. To reiterate my earlier statement “the ability of individual members of that species to plan in such a way as to maximize their own well-being.”
is a series of appeals of to authority
Kinda, but the important thing is that you can go and check. In your worldview, how do you go and check yourself? Or are “streams of sensory data” sufficiently syncronised between everyone?
And I go look for review articles that support the quote that people care about social status. But if you don’t consider expert opinion to be evidence, then you have to go back and reinvent human knowledge from the ground up every time you try and learn anything.
I can always go look for more related data if I have questions about a model. I can read more literature. I can make observations.
If your model(s) and sensory data conflict, who wins? Which one do you trust more?
Since you’re saying you have no access to the underlying reality (=territory), you have trust something. I am not sure what do you mean by “meaningful”.
If my eyes right now are saying something different than my eyes normally tell me, then I will tend to distrust my eyes right now in favor of believing what I remember my eyes telling me.
Well, clearly that can’t be true all the time or you’ll never update your internal models.
Genetic self-interest involves genes making more copies of themselves. Personal self-interest involves persons making decisions that they think will bring them happiness, utility, what have you.
Ah, I see. So, basically, genetic self-interest is “objective” (and we can count the number of gene copies in the next generations), while personal self-interest is “subjective”. But how does the genetic self-interest work if not through the personal self-interest? Or do you posit some biological drives which overpower personal self-interest?
I can make observations.
Any particular reason you are unwilling to call your observations “facts”, by the way?
So, do you trust that sensory data? You mention reality, presumably you allow that objective reality which generates the stream of your sensory data exists. If you test your models by sensory data, then that sensory data is your “facts”—something that is your criterion for whether a model is good or not.
I am also not sure how do you deal with surprises. Does sensory data always wins over models? Or sometimes you’d be willing to say that you don’t believe your own eyes?
At this rate of change we are not talking about climate. The ice core data essentially measures certain characteristics of dust in the atmosphere. Even in recorded history we had things like volcano eruptions causing a “year without summer”. It’s not like glaciers can noticeably react to weather/climate abnormalities on a scale of years, anyway.
When you said “more closely linked to genetic self-interest than to personal self-interest” did you mean the genetic self-interest of the entire species or did you mean something along the lines of Dawkins’ Selfish Gene? I read you as arguing for interests of the population gene pool. If you are talking about selfish genes then I don’t see any difference between “genetic self-interest” and “personal self-interest”.
Kinda, but the important thing is that you can go and check. In your worldview, how do you go and check yourself? Or are “streams of sensory data” sufficiently syncronised between everyone?
I don’t understand what you mean by trust. Trust has very little to do with it. I work within the model that the sensory data is meaningful, that life as I experience it is meaningful. It isn’t obvious to me that either of those things are true any more than the parallel postulate is obvious to me. They are axioms.
If my eyes right now are saying something different than my eyes normally tell me, then I will tend to distrust my eyes right now in favor of believing what I remember my eyes telling me. I don’t think that’s the same as saying I don’t believe my eyes.
The idea of the genetic self-interest of an entire species is more or less incoherent. Genetic self-interest involves genes making more copies of themselves. Personal self-interest involves persons making decisions that they think will bring them happiness, utility, what have you. To reiterate my earlier statement “the ability of individual members of that species to plan in such a way as to maximize their own well-being.”
And I go look for review articles that support the quote that people care about social status. But if you don’t consider expert opinion to be evidence, then you have to go back and reinvent human knowledge from the ground up every time you try and learn anything.
I can always go look for more related data if I have questions about a model. I can read more literature. I can make observations.
If your model(s) and sensory data conflict, who wins? Which one do you trust more?
Since you’re saying you have no access to the underlying reality (=territory), you have trust something. I am not sure what do you mean by “meaningful”.
Well, clearly that can’t be true all the time or you’ll never update your internal models.
Ah, I see. So, basically, genetic self-interest is “objective” (and we can count the number of gene copies in the next generations), while personal self-interest is “subjective”. But how does the genetic self-interest work if not through the personal self-interest? Or do you posit some biological drives which overpower personal self-interest?
Any particular reason you are unwilling to call your observations “facts”, by the way?