A tag that I’m about to create would have the following description:
________ is a strategy for dealing with confusing questions or points of disagreement, such as “do humans have free will” or “when a tree falls in a forest with no-one to hear, does it make a sound”. Rather than trying to give an answer in the form of “yes”, “no”, or “the question is incoherent”, one seeks to understand the cognitive algorithm that gave rise to the confusion, so that at the end there is nothing left to explain.
Eliezer originally called this strategy “dissolving the question” (in the first linked post), but an important part of it is thinking in terms of “how an algorithm feels from the inside” (the second linked post), and I tend to think of these interchangeably. “Dissolving the Question” says, among other things:
What kind of cognitive algorithm, as felt from the inside, would generate the observed debate about “free will”?
In fact, until I looked up the relevant posts, I remembered the name of the strategy as being “dissolving the algorithm” rather than “dissolving the question”.
Given these considerations, should the tag be called:
Out of these I think Dissolving the Question is probably the right name for the tag. Dissolving the Cognitive Algorithm is in interesting alternate name for the technique, but since it isn’t known it’s not very good for the tag name. How an algorithm feels from the inside doesn’t feel like a tag name, and wouldn’t be intuitive to put on posts that aim to dissolve questions.
Though Dissolving the Question also feels awkward for a tag name. Perhaps ’Dissolving Questions”, of if anyone has better ideas?
I’ve felt like I’ve wanted a tag for “Confusions” and I guess by extension one about “Deconfusions”? “Deconfusioning?”
I’m really not sure, but I think there’s a broader thing here that should a be a (the?) tag. Something about the broader phenomenon of getting deconfused, of which “dissolving the question” is an instance.
Of the three things listed tough, definitely Dissolving the Question.
A tag that I’m about to create would have the following description:
Eliezer originally called this strategy “dissolving the question” (in the first linked post), but an important part of it is thinking in terms of “how an algorithm feels from the inside” (the second linked post), and I tend to think of these interchangeably. “Dissolving the Question” says, among other things:
In fact, until I looked up the relevant posts, I remembered the name of the strategy as being “dissolving the algorithm” rather than “dissolving the question”.
Given these considerations, should the tag be called:
Dissolving the Question
Dissolving the Cognitive Algorithm
How an Algorithm Feels From Inside
Something else?
Out of these I think Dissolving the Question is probably the right name for the tag. Dissolving the Cognitive Algorithm is in interesting alternate name for the technique, but since it isn’t known it’s not very good for the tag name. How an algorithm feels from the inside doesn’t feel like a tag name, and wouldn’t be intuitive to put on posts that aim to dissolve questions.
Though Dissolving the Question also feels awkward for a tag name. Perhaps ’Dissolving Questions”, of if anyone has better ideas?
+1 Dissolving Questions
I’ve felt like I’ve wanted a tag for “Confusions” and I guess by extension one about “Deconfusions”? “Deconfusioning?”
I’m really not sure, but I think there’s a broader thing here that should a be a (the?) tag. Something about the broader phenomenon of getting deconfused, of which “dissolving the question” is an instance.
Of the three things listed tough, definitely Dissolving the Question.