There’s a final filter in rationality where you take your ideas seriously, and a critical sub-filter is where you’re willing to take ideas seriously even though the people around you don’t.
Going to a group where cryonics was normal was a shift of perspective even for me, and here I thought I had conformity beat. It was what caused me to realize—no, parents who don’t sign their kids up for cryonics really are doing something inexcusable; the mistake is not inevitable, it’s just them.
I dunno, I think that we smart people have a tendency to look for perfectionism in ourselves, and demand it from others. I have spoken to many ordinary people about cryo, some quite smart, and their brains just go walla-walla-bonk crazy. In this regard, I see them as being rather like children who cannot help but eat the nice marshmallow in front of them.
Strong negative emotional reactions, lots of psychological defense mechanisms activate, smart people say silly silly things. I’ll never forget my best friend’s girlfriend, a Cambridge medical student, saying that whilst cryonics, might save you from death, she said it was not certain to work and therefore “too risky”.
Signing up for cryonics is kind of the textbook example of applied rationality around here, much as theism is the textbook example of applied irrationality, so I think it’s interesting to know what kind of people did it, and why.
Quibble: “theism” itself isn’t so much applied irrationality—that would be something more like wasting time at church, or buying lottery tickets—an action with a tangible cost.
Learning new very-specific words that completely nail a phenomenon I’m trying to describe is something I really enjoy, and it doesn’t happen too often. Thanks!
My pleasure. (It was a joint effort: my vague recollection that there was a term that means “mentioning without mentioning” plus Google equals… a lot of karma points, apparently.)
I was going to leave a comment simply stating:
“Eliezer Yudkowsky—the man who can make a blatantly off-topic post and be upvoted for it.”
But it occurs to me I might be missing something, so explanation please.
There’s a final filter in rationality where you take your ideas seriously, and a critical sub-filter is where you’re willing to take ideas seriously even though the people around you don’t.
Going to a group where cryonics was normal was a shift of perspective even for me, and here I thought I had conformity beat. It was what caused me to realize—no, parents who don’t sign their kids up for cryonics really are doing something inexcusable; the mistake is not inevitable, it’s just them.
I dunno, I think that we smart people have a tendency to look for perfectionism in ourselves, and demand it from others. I have spoken to many ordinary people about cryo, some quite smart, and their brains just go walla-walla-bonk crazy. In this regard, I see them as being rather like children who cannot help but eat the nice marshmallow in front of them.
Anything specific you can share?
I’m thinking about mentioning cryo to a few people, and am curious to know what kind of reaction to expect.
Strong negative emotional reactions, lots of psychological defense mechanisms activate, smart people say silly silly things. I’ll never forget my best friend’s girlfriend, a Cambridge medical student, saying that whilst cryonics, might save you from death, she said it was not certain to work and therefore “too risky”.
I second Michael’s question
I blame the education system.
Signing up for cryonics is kind of the textbook example of applied rationality around here, much as theism is the textbook example of applied irrationality, so I think it’s interesting to know what kind of people did it, and why.
Quibble: “theism” itself isn’t so much applied irrationality—that would be something more like wasting time at church, or buying lottery tickets—an action with a tangible cost.
This is a sly way of still saying that but not taking the karma hit. (Upvoted, btw)
Proslepsis.
Learning new very-specific words that completely nail a phenomenon I’m trying to describe is something I really enjoy, and it doesn’t happen too often. Thanks!
My pleasure. (It was a joint effort: my vague recollection that there was a term that means “mentioning without mentioning” plus Google equals… a lot of karma points, apparently.)