There is not one “truth value” in any person. Every person is a network of truth values, on all different subjects. Some are closely linked to one another, others not. Every truth exists in a hierarchy of importance.
Most people have crude heuristics. Other people (like Kurzweil, Freitas, Drexler) have well-developed hierarchies of importance, relationships, accuracy, relevance to other subjects, etc.
Any time my networked truth values, as nodes, exchange information with reality, they can be altered, updated, or solidified, based on the input, and output back to the message sender. The more communication, the more the true pattern of reality is reflected in my network, to the extent I am intelligent.
The unintelligent have little choice but to defend the limited truth they comprehend. If they properly perceive the morality of the domain they are considering, and it is a moral domain, they are obligated to defend it. This is why Penn Jilette doesn’t mind preaching directed at him: he prefers honest to accuracy. If people think he’s damned unless he accepts Jesus, he says he’d be upset if people didn’t debate the issue with him.
I’d be annoyed, but I see his point: The domain of the truth you believe, and the amount of difference in others in your environment determines how useful you judge the truth to be. Your value judgment of your message informs others’ receipt of your message. They then let you know whether they think your value judgment is accurate.
So long as force is disallowed, this is the optimum, even if it doesn’t seem so to dispassionate rationalists.
After all, I might be critical of radical Islamists on their way to shoot up cartoonists. If he vociferously sends out the idea that apostates or infidels should be killed (because otherwise he believes his world would end, or whatever) then I have a lot to be thankful for. I may have my hand on my pistol, but I tell him he’s 100% full of shit, and counter his claims with logic. Maybe the logic convinces him, but even if it doesn’t the value judgment he’s given me has informed me that I’m in a dangerous situation.
The same rules apply to the highly intelligent, but there will be less vociferous communication from them. Why? Because getting into vociferous communications with people isn’t smart, unless a meteorite is headed for your city. There’s no reason to get agitated, in most conversations.
So the lunatics send out more vociferous communications. OK, got it. We’re used to them. But that’s also useful, because the more lunatics there are, the more they’re identified, and the more we can assess the health of society: It either creates a lot of lunatics who have occasion to be loud and boisterous, or it creates very few. In either case, them being honest is overall good for society, even though we don’t want to hear them.
...And occasionally, there’s a Kary Mullis who gets called a lunatic, but whose excellent vociferously-communicated ideas are at least equal to his crazy ones. So long as he can’t impose his crazy ones on anyone with violence, the presence of his ranting is purely benevolent.
Moreover, let’s say that western civilization breaks down, and we’re all subjugated to Islam (or Christianity, etc.). Well, then perhaps the central nodes upon which the others rest, the ones that have been very solidified by feedback and experience, take over. Then, it’s time for retaliatory force.
The truth nodes that are “protective” should deal with force. But those nodes should be very few, very small, and never used in normal situations.
Moreover: It’s not useful to hunt the heretics, but it is useful to send out messages that present an alternate truth. There’s no reason to “go negative” unless you’re asked about the truth. Then, sure, speak the truth, reveal that you believe that “idea X” is a crazy idea, from a damaged brain, and that you’re happy to debate “idea X”. The willingness to put mutually-exclusive ideas into conflict with one another is another core node of western civilization, and science itself.
There is not one “truth value” in any person. Every person is a network of truth values, on all different subjects. Some are closely linked to one another, others not. Every truth exists in a hierarchy of importance.
Most people have crude heuristics. Other people (like Kurzweil, Freitas, Drexler) have well-developed hierarchies of importance, relationships, accuracy, relevance to other subjects, etc.
Any time my networked truth values, as nodes, exchange information with reality, they can be altered, updated, or solidified, based on the input, and output back to the message sender. The more communication, the more the true pattern of reality is reflected in my network, to the extent I am intelligent.
The unintelligent have little choice but to defend the limited truth they comprehend. If they properly perceive the morality of the domain they are considering, and it is a moral domain, they are obligated to defend it. This is why Penn Jilette doesn’t mind preaching directed at him: he prefers honest to accuracy. If people think he’s damned unless he accepts Jesus, he says he’d be upset if people didn’t debate the issue with him.
I’d be annoyed, but I see his point: The domain of the truth you believe, and the amount of difference in others in your environment determines how useful you judge the truth to be. Your value judgment of your message informs others’ receipt of your message. They then let you know whether they think your value judgment is accurate.
So long as force is disallowed, this is the optimum, even if it doesn’t seem so to dispassionate rationalists.
After all, I might be critical of radical Islamists on their way to shoot up cartoonists. If he vociferously sends out the idea that apostates or infidels should be killed (because otherwise he believes his world would end, or whatever) then I have a lot to be thankful for. I may have my hand on my pistol, but I tell him he’s 100% full of shit, and counter his claims with logic. Maybe the logic convinces him, but even if it doesn’t the value judgment he’s given me has informed me that I’m in a dangerous situation.
The same rules apply to the highly intelligent, but there will be less vociferous communication from them. Why? Because getting into vociferous communications with people isn’t smart, unless a meteorite is headed for your city. There’s no reason to get agitated, in most conversations.
So the lunatics send out more vociferous communications. OK, got it. We’re used to them. But that’s also useful, because the more lunatics there are, the more they’re identified, and the more we can assess the health of society: It either creates a lot of lunatics who have occasion to be loud and boisterous, or it creates very few. In either case, them being honest is overall good for society, even though we don’t want to hear them.
...And occasionally, there’s a Kary Mullis who gets called a lunatic, but whose excellent vociferously-communicated ideas are at least equal to his crazy ones. So long as he can’t impose his crazy ones on anyone with violence, the presence of his ranting is purely benevolent.
Moreover, let’s say that western civilization breaks down, and we’re all subjugated to Islam (or Christianity, etc.). Well, then perhaps the central nodes upon which the others rest, the ones that have been very solidified by feedback and experience, take over. Then, it’s time for retaliatory force.
The truth nodes that are “protective” should deal with force. But those nodes should be very few, very small, and never used in normal situations.
Moreover: It’s not useful to hunt the heretics, but it is useful to send out messages that present an alternate truth. There’s no reason to “go negative” unless you’re asked about the truth. Then, sure, speak the truth, reveal that you believe that “idea X” is a crazy idea, from a damaged brain, and that you’re happy to debate “idea X”. The willingness to put mutually-exclusive ideas into conflict with one another is another core node of western civilization, and science itself.