I’m confused. You seem to be expressing frustration at not getting a clear explanation of how Looking is incompatible with standard LW ontology, but Val just said that it is compatible with it?
Of course they may well be right; perhaps explaining what we’re wrong about really is futile because we just need to Get Out Of The Car but nothing they tell us will help us know what a “car” is or in what way we’re “in” one or how to “get out”,
… my post was an attempt to explain some of exactly that? A “car” is any belief or conceptual structure that you’re fused with; how you get out of it depends on the exact nature of the belief. For things like simple emotional reactions, just managing to distract yourself may be enough; for deeper conceptual structures, developing skill at being able to break down your cognitive processes into more basic building blocks is typically required.
I don’t think Valentine did quite say that (his notion of) Looking is compatible with standard LW ontology. He speaks of “the restriction of Looking to that ontology” and indicates that from within the standard LW ontology other things will “remain largely inaccessible”. He says that what Wei_Dai is saying “presupposes the standard LW ontology” and that this produces a “Get out of the car” problem. (While, yes, conceding that within that ontology “yes, it’s compatible” is the best available answer.)
I agree that your post is an attempt to explain those things. (And my slightly snarky comments about what “the Enlightened” are and aren’t willing to do was—I should have been explicit about this, sorry—not meant to apply to you: your clarity and explicitness on this stuff is extremely welcome.) But my impression is that, while Valentine has expressed approval of your post and said that he feels understood and so forth, he thinks there are important aspects of Looking/enlightenment/kensho/… that it doesn’t (and maybe can’t) cover.
Obvious disclaimer: I am not Valentine, and I may very well be misunderstanding him.
But my impression is that, while Valentine has expressed approval of your post and said that he feels understood and so forth, he thinks there are important aspects of Looking/enlightenment/kensho/… that it doesn’t (and maybe can’t) cover.
Doesn’t: yes, for sure.
Can’t: mmm, maybe? I expect that by the end of the sequence I’m writing, we’ll return to Kaj’s interpretation of Looking and basically just use it as a given — but it’ll mean something slightly different. Right now, I expect that if we just assume Kaj’s interpretation, we’re going to encounter a logjam when we apply Looking to the favored LW ontology, and the social web will have a kind of allergic reaction to the logjam that prevents collective understanding of where it came from. Once we collectively understand the structure of that whole process, we can smash face-first into the logjam, notice the confusion that results, and then make some meaningful progress on making our epistemic methods up to tackling serious meta-ontological challenges. At that point I think it’ll be just fine to say “Yep, we can think of Looking as compatible with the standard LW ontology.” Just not before.
I’m confused. You seem to be expressing frustration at not getting a clear explanation of how Looking is incompatible with standard LW ontology, but Val just said that it is compatible with it?
… my post was an attempt to explain some of exactly that? A “car” is any belief or conceptual structure that you’re fused with; how you get out of it depends on the exact nature of the belief. For things like simple emotional reactions, just managing to distract yourself may be enough; for deeper conceptual structures, developing skill at being able to break down your cognitive processes into more basic building blocks is typically required.
I don’t think Valentine did quite say that (his notion of) Looking is compatible with standard LW ontology. He speaks of “the restriction of Looking to that ontology” and indicates that from within the standard LW ontology other things will “remain largely inaccessible”. He says that what Wei_Dai is saying “presupposes the standard LW ontology” and that this produces a “Get out of the car” problem. (While, yes, conceding that within that ontology “yes, it’s compatible” is the best available answer.)
I agree that your post is an attempt to explain those things. (And my slightly snarky comments about what “the Enlightened” are and aren’t willing to do was—I should have been explicit about this, sorry—not meant to apply to you: your clarity and explicitness on this stuff is extremely welcome.) But my impression is that, while Valentine has expressed approval of your post and said that he feels understood and so forth, he thinks there are important aspects of Looking/enlightenment/kensho/… that it doesn’t (and maybe can’t) cover.
Obvious disclaimer: I am not Valentine, and I may very well be misunderstanding him.
Doesn’t: yes, for sure.
Can’t: mmm, maybe? I expect that by the end of the sequence I’m writing, we’ll return to Kaj’s interpretation of Looking and basically just use it as a given — but it’ll mean something slightly different. Right now, I expect that if we just assume Kaj’s interpretation, we’re going to encounter a logjam when we apply Looking to the favored LW ontology, and the social web will have a kind of allergic reaction to the logjam that prevents collective understanding of where it came from. Once we collectively understand the structure of that whole process, we can smash face-first into the logjam, notice the confusion that results, and then make some meaningful progress on making our epistemic methods up to tackling serious meta-ontological challenges. At that point I think it’ll be just fine to say “Yep, we can think of Looking as compatible with the standard LW ontology.” Just not before.
Interesting. Let’s see what the sequence holds...
Got it. Apology accepted and appreciated. :)