Eliezer: have you really never heard the “10% of the brain” myth? Here’s a link. You can get more by googling the phrase “ten percent brain.”
Lots of people who believe in psychic phenomena will make arguments like, “studies show we only use ten percent of our brains. People with psychic powers are probably the ones who’ve figured out how to use more,” or something like that.
And I agree that I’ve never heard the word ‘science’ used as a curiousity stopper. It doesn’t make sense in context (as opposed to something like “this nifty gadget.” Have you ever heard anyone answer a question with the word ‘science!‘?). The lightbulb was a better example, but also I think wrong: when I say electricity makes it work, I’m referencing a culturally understood bundle of information. And really, no one does ask that question in the way you mean, in our culture; everyone’s seen lightbulbs before. The only way this makes sense is if you’re talking to someone who’s never seen electricity in action before, the answer ‘electricity’ is highly unlikely to satisfy them.
The general problem I have with this series of posts is that you seem to conflate three different phenomena, two of which are useful. The first is actual non-answers, a la Feynman’s Wakalixes. The second is brief answers that are actually placeholders for larger discussions; ‘electricity’ is a good example of this. If your response about the light is “LEDs and batteries,” that’s just two words but it serves as an actual explanation if you know what those two things are. And third is rational ignorance; as I said earlier, you ask questions until either you understand or you decide that further understanding isn’t worth the effort.
And finally, to be blunt, it’s fine for you to say that your purpose here is to focus on writing speed without worrying about quality, and therefore our complaints that the quality isn’t very high are beside the point; but it doesn’t really give us any reason to hang around.
The recent move “Inception” includes the 10% of the brain myth. I cringed, since it has been so soundly busted.
If you could ignore that particular flaw, it was a really good movie. Unfortunately it is the foundational premise of the movie, so if you couldn’t ignore it chances are you’d hate the movie.
Unfortunately it is the foundational premise of the movie
Only foundational in the sense that it would be necessary if you were to recreate the movie in reality. For the actual plot of the movie, it was not foundational. The idea that subjective speed-ups in time perception can stack multiplicatively is a foundational premise of the movie.
Eliezer: have you really never heard the “10% of the brain” myth? Here’s a link. You can get more by googling the phrase “ten percent brain.”
Lots of people who believe in psychic phenomena will make arguments like, “studies show we only use ten percent of our brains. People with psychic powers are probably the ones who’ve figured out how to use more,” or something like that.
And I agree that I’ve never heard the word ‘science’ used as a curiousity stopper. It doesn’t make sense in context (as opposed to something like “this nifty gadget.” Have you ever heard anyone answer a question with the word ‘science!‘?). The lightbulb was a better example, but also I think wrong: when I say electricity makes it work, I’m referencing a culturally understood bundle of information. And really, no one does ask that question in the way you mean, in our culture; everyone’s seen lightbulbs before. The only way this makes sense is if you’re talking to someone who’s never seen electricity in action before, the answer ‘electricity’ is highly unlikely to satisfy them.
The general problem I have with this series of posts is that you seem to conflate three different phenomena, two of which are useful. The first is actual non-answers, a la Feynman’s Wakalixes. The second is brief answers that are actually placeholders for larger discussions; ‘electricity’ is a good example of this. If your response about the light is “LEDs and batteries,” that’s just two words but it serves as an actual explanation if you know what those two things are. And third is rational ignorance; as I said earlier, you ask questions until either you understand or you decide that further understanding isn’t worth the effort.
And finally, to be blunt, it’s fine for you to say that your purpose here is to focus on writing speed without worrying about quality, and therefore our complaints that the quality isn’t very high are beside the point; but it doesn’t really give us any reason to hang around.
The recent move “Inception” includes the 10% of the brain myth. I cringed, since it has been so soundly busted.
If you could ignore that particular flaw, it was a really good movie. Unfortunately it is the foundational premise of the movie, so if you couldn’t ignore it chances are you’d hate the movie.
Only foundational in the sense that it would be necessary if you were to recreate the movie in reality. For the actual plot of the movie, it was not foundational. The idea that subjective speed-ups in time perception can stack multiplicatively is a foundational premise of the movie.