I chose to believe in the model of science—deliberately and consciously. This decision, however, has absolutely zero effect on the actual scientific method. I choose to believe science not because I can show it to be likely true, but simply because it is useful for making accurate predictions. I choose to reject, at least in so far as my actions, my internal beliefs about how the world works when they conflict with the ways science says the world works. I reject my intuition and all my firsthand experience that velocity is additive because relativity says it is not. I reject my intuition and firsthand experience that smaller and smaller particles act like proportionally smaller grains of sand because quantum theory says they behave like waves. I choose to fight every bias I possess as I become aware of it, though I clearly believe and act as if that bias were true when I am not fighting it.
If I cannot choose to reject old beliefs and accept beliefs I do not currently possess, how can I choose to overcome bias or become less wrong?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but you sound like you already expect science’s predictions for velocity to come true before you “choose to reject old beliefs”. If someone asked you beforehand to bet on whether your intuitions or science would pan out here (in those words), you’d bet on science.
I sometimes feel (less often now) that if I ‘follow the rules’ nothing really bad can happen to me. I try to fight this feeling because even my own sheltered life suggests its predictions would fail eventually.
I chose to believe in the model of science—deliberately and consciously. This decision, however, has absolutely zero effect on the actual scientific method. I choose to believe science not because I can show it to be likely true, but simply because it is useful for making accurate predictions. I choose to reject, at least in so far as my actions, my internal beliefs about how the world works when they conflict with the ways science says the world works. I reject my intuition and all my firsthand experience that velocity is additive because relativity says it is not. I reject my intuition and firsthand experience that smaller and smaller particles act like proportionally smaller grains of sand because quantum theory says they behave like waves. I choose to fight every bias I possess as I become aware of it, though I clearly believe and act as if that bias were true when I am not fighting it.
If I cannot choose to reject old beliefs and accept beliefs I do not currently possess, how can I choose to overcome bias or become less wrong?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but you sound like you already expect science’s predictions for velocity to come true before you “choose to reject old beliefs”. If someone asked you beforehand to bet on whether your intuitions or science would pan out here (in those words), you’d bet on science.
I sometimes feel (less often now) that if I ‘follow the rules’ nothing really bad can happen to me. I try to fight this feeling because even my own sheltered life suggests its predictions would fail eventually.
ETA: alief.