RSS

Cached Thoughts

TagLast edit: Sep 21, 2020, 1:09 AM by Ruby

Cached Thoughts are ideas, attitudes, and beliefs that a person has formed on some past occasion, and hasn’t re-evaluated since then. The name references the concept of a cache in computing: a component storing data that has been calculated or retrieved once, so that it is quickly available without needing to be recalculated or re-retrieved.

See also: Groupthink, Information Cascades, Status quo bias, Semantic Stopsign, Separate Magisteria, Rationalist Taboo

Cached thoughts can be useful in saving computational resources at the cost of some memory load, and also at the risk of maintaining a belief long past the point when evidence should force an update. In particular, cached thoughts can result in a lack of creative approaches to problem-solving, as cached solutions may interfere with the formation of novel ones. What is generally called common sense is more or less a collection of cached thoughts.

In modern civilization particularly, no one can think fast enough to think their own thoughts. If I’d been abandoned in the woods as an infant, raised by wolves or silent robots, I would scarcely be recognizable as human. No one can think fast enough to recapitulate the wisdom of a hunter-gatherer tribe in one lifetime, starting from scratch. As for the wisdom of a literate civilization, forget it.

But the flip side of this is that I continually see people who aspire to critical thinking, repeating back cached thoughts which were not invented by critical thinkers. – Eliezer Yudkowsky, Cached Thoughts

Main Post

Notable Posts

Cached Thoughts

Eliezer YudkowskyOct 11, 2007, 11:46 PM
219 points
94 comments3 min readLW link

Cached Selves

AnnaSalamonMar 22, 2009, 7:34 PM
217 points
81 comments7 min readLW link

Origi­nal Seeing

Eliezer YudkowskyOct 14, 2007, 4:38 AM
181 points
29 comments2 min readLW link

The “Out­side the Box” Box

Eliezer YudkowskyOct 12, 2007, 10:50 PM
94 points
51 comments2 min readLW link

Philo­soph­i­cal Landmines

[deleted]Feb 8, 2013, 9:22 PM
165 points
146 comments3 min readLW link

Ex­per­i­ments as a Third Alternative

Adam ZernerOct 29, 2023, 12:39 AM
48 points
21 comments5 min readLW link

Book sum­mary: Un­lock­ing the Emo­tional Brain

Kaj_SotalaOct 8, 2019, 7:11 PM
332 points
48 comments21 min readLW link3 reviews

Learned Blankness

AnnaSalamonApr 18, 2011, 6:55 PM
261 points
188 comments5 min readLW link

Subagents, akra­sia, and co­her­ence in humans

Kaj_SotalaMar 25, 2019, 2:24 PM
141 points
31 comments16 min readLW link

Use cu­ri­os­ity

AnnaSalamonFeb 25, 2011, 10:23 PM
92 points
61 comments1 min readLW link

Cas­sette Tape Thoughts

ElizabethJan 22, 2020, 10:50 PM
48 points
0 comments2 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

Fire­place Delu­sions [LINK]

masFeb 3, 2012, 4:13 AM
48 points
67 comments1 min readLW link

My story /​ own­ing one’s reasons

jwhendyJan 7, 2011, 12:17 AM
70 points
26 comments4 min readLW link

Maps vs But­tons; Nerds vs Normies

Bound_upDec 28, 2017, 9:11 PM
24 points
23 comments6 min readLW link

Ex­am­ine your assumptions

Douglas_ReayMar 30, 2012, 11:28 AM
49 points
15 comments2 min readLW link

What data gen­er­ated that thought?

Kaj_SotalaApr 26, 2011, 12:54 PM
42 points
32 comments2 min readLW link

Notes on Forgiveness

David GrossJan 26, 2021, 2:05 AM
11 points
4 comments25 min readLW link

How to Seem (and Be) Deep

Eliezer YudkowskyOct 14, 2007, 6:13 PM
119 points
122 comments4 min readLW link

Cached Procrastination

jimrandomhApr 25, 2009, 4:22 PM
44 points
49 comments3 min readLW link

Learned Blank­ness and Ex­pec­ta­tions of Solubility

brookMar 18, 2022, 12:42 PM
8 points
2 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Does the “an­cient wis­dom” ar­gu­ment have any val­idity? If a par­tic­u­lar teach­ing or tra­di­tion is old, to what ex­tent does this make it more trust­wor­thy?

SpectrumDTNov 4, 2024, 3:20 PM
18 points
49 comments1 min readLW link

Cri­tiquing Risks From Learned Op­ti­miza­tion, and Avoid­ing Cached Theories

ProofBySonnetJul 11, 2023, 11:38 AM
1 point
0 comments6 min readLW link

A Day into my thoughts!

PranayJairamMar 17, 2024, 10:07 PM
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link
No comments.