Also, at the risk of testing everyone’s tolerance for the density of MarkusRamikin posts on a page (sorry!) I’d like to make something clear. I fear I might sound like I think:
scarcity of debate → tribal belief → bad.
That is not so. I’ve no love for fake debate for the sake of debate, and I don’t think the fact that some beliefs are shared so widely here that there is virtually no debate is in itself wrong. Even in the best rationalist community you could imagine, this would happen—precisely because rationality is supposed to help us narrow down on true beliefs, which necessarily means that if our rationality is on the whole greater than the wider society’s, our beliefs should show convergence.
Everyone agreeing that one thing is more likely than any alternative (MWI for instance) does not mean that there is consensus about how likely it or other things are.
Also, at the risk of testing everyone’s tolerance for the density of MarkusRamikin posts on a page (sorry!) I’d like to make something clear. I fear I might sound like I think:
scarcity of debate → tribal belief → bad.
That is not so. I’ve no love for fake debate for the sake of debate, and I don’t think the fact that some beliefs are shared so widely here that there is virtually no debate is in itself wrong. Even in the best rationalist community you could imagine, this would happen—precisely because rationality is supposed to help us narrow down on true beliefs, which necessarily means that if our rationality is on the whole greater than the wider society’s, our beliefs should show convergence.
That this community consensus leads to some tribalism is probably an unavoidable side effect. But it’s the sort of entropy we need to remain vigilant for and pump out.
depth != breadth
Everyone agreeing that one thing is more likely than any alternative (MWI for instance) does not mean that there is consensus about how likely it or other things are.