hannahelisabeth

Karma: 71

hannahelisabeth 20 May 2015 10:15 UTC
0 points
on: Meetup : Oslo LessWrong Meetup
I’ll be there.

hannahelisabeth 18 Nov 2012 11:05 UTC
0 points
on: Righting a Wrong Question
“Why does reality exist?”

I think the problem with this question is the use of the word “why.” It is generally either a quest for intentionality (eg. “Why did you do that?) or for earlier steps in a causal chain (eg. Why is the sky blue?). So the only type of answer that could properly answer this question is one that introduced a first cause (which is, of course, a concept rife with problems) or one that supposed intentionality in the universe (like, the universe decided to exist as it is or something equally nonsensical). This is probably (part of) why answering this question with the non-explaination “God did it” feels so satisfactory to some—it supposes intentionality and creates a first cause. It makes you feel sated without ever having explained anything, but the question was a wrong one in the first place, because any answer would necessarily lead to another question, since the crux of the question is that of a causal chain.

I think a better question would be “How does reality exist?” as that seems a lot more likely to be answerable.

hannahelisabeth 18 Nov 2012 10:33 UTC
0 points
in reply to: MugaSofer’s comment on: Dissolving the Question
I can feel pain in dreams. I’m not sure if I can self-inflict pain in dreams (I’ve never tried), but I’ve definitely felt pain in dreams.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:52 UTC
0 points
in reply to: gwillen’s comment on: Dissolving the Question
I’m not sure if I’ve experienced sleep paralysis before, but I’ve had experiences very similar to it. I will “wake up” from a dream without actually waking up. So I will know that I’m in bed, my mind will feel conscious, but my eyes will be closed and I’ll be unable to move. Ususally I try to roll around to wake myself up, or to make noise so someone else will notice and wake me up. But it doesn’t work, ’cause I can’t move or make noise, even though it feels like I am doing those things (and yet I’m aware that I’m not, because I can feel the lack of physical sensation and auditory perceptions). But when I actually wake up and can move, it feels like waking up, rather than just not being paralyzed any more. And sometimes when I’m in that “think I’m awake and can’t move” state, I imagine my environment being different than it actually is. Like, I might think I’m awake and in my own bed, and then when I wake up for real, I realize I’m at someone else’s place. Which makes me think I wasn’t actually awake when I felt like I was. But it feels awfully similar to sleep paralysis, so I’m not sure if it is sleep paralysis or just something very similar.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:39 UTC
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in reply to: ata’s comment on: Dissolving the Question

They usually recommend things like seeing if light switches work normally

Do other people have the same problem I do, then? When I’m dreaming, I often find that it’s dark and that light switches don’t work. I’m always thinking that the light bulbs are burnt out. It’s so frustrating, ’cause I just want to turn on the light and it’s like I never can in a dream.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:35 UTC
0 points
in reply to: ata’s comment on: Dissolving the Question
When I dream about being underwater, I can breathe in the dream, but I also am under the impression that I’m holding my breath somehow, even though I’m breathing. Like, I’ll “hold my breath” only, I’ve just made the mental note to do it and not actually done it. But it won’t be clear to me in the dream whether or not I’m holding my breath, even though I’m aware that I’m still breathing. It’s weird and contradictory, but dreams are capable of being like that. It’s like how in a dream, you can see someone and know who they’re supposed to be, even though they may look and act nothing like that person they supposedly are. Or how you can be in both the first and third person perspective at the same time.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:31 UTC
2 points
in reply to: AlephNeil’s comment on: Dissolving the Question
That’s exactly my method too.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:22 UTC
1 point
on: Dissolving the Question

Those who dream do not know they dream, but when you wake you know you are awake.

I actually use this fact to enable lucid dreaming. When I’m dreaming, I ask myself, “am I dreaming?” And then I answer yes, without any further consideration, as I’ve realized that the answer is always yes. Because when I’m awake, I don’t ask that question, because there’s never any doubt to begin with. So when I’m dreaming and I find myself unsure of whether or not I’m dreaming, I therefore know that I’m dreaming, simply because the doubt and confusion exists. It’s a method that’s a lot simpler (and more accurate) than trying to analyze the contents of the dream to see if it seems real.

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 22:02 UTC
5 points
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in reply to: michael_vassar’s comment on: Universal Law
That may be true, but you’ve given no evidence to support your claim. Can you give some examples?

hannahelisabeth 17 Nov 2012 21:25 UTC
1 point
in reply to: gokhalea’s comment on: Feeling Rational
Well that really depends what the decision is and what the circumstantial factors are. As I said in my last comment, decisions are made by a combination of emotion and reason. Emotions tell you where you want to go, and reason tells you how to get there. Whether or not a decision is reasonable depends on (1) was it an effective (and efficient, though that’s somewhat less important) way of achieving your goal? Did it actually produce the outcome desired by your emotions? And (2) was it consistint with reality and the facts? Was the decision based on accurate information?

Taking the example you gave, of a family member being hurt by someone else in an accident, your emotions in reaction to this event are likely to be very charged. You just lost someone that was important to you, and you’re bound to feel hurt. It’s also very common to feel angry and to want revenge on (or justice for) the person that was responsible. It’s not clear to me why the human default is to assign guilt without evaluting the situation first to see whether or not the person actually is guilty, but that does seem to be the common response. In this case, it would be up to a jury to decide whether this constituted manslaughter. It’s most probable that the jury, having no vested interests besides ensuring justice, would be able to come to the most rational conclusion.

That said, if you are being truly rational about it and if your emotions are telling you your goal is to find out who (if anyone) was responsible, then your conclusion should be no different than that of the jury’s. Of course, most people do allow their emotions to bias them, and aren’t rational (thus the need for the jury). But if you are being rational about it, and your goal truly is about discovering the guilt or innocence of the parties involved, then how you feel about the situation is what is motivating your search, and reason and evidence should be what determined your answer. If you really don’t have enough evidence, and the evidence you do have doesn’t point more in one direction than the other, then yes, the rational conclusion would be simply to admit that you don’t know.

One should be careful to inspect what exactly that emotional motivation actually is, if it’s to determine guilt or innocence, to learn the truth about the situation, and not to find someone to blame so that you can feel better about it. (Although, how it would make you feel better to condemn a potentially innocent person when it will do nothing to bring back your family member nor help anyone else is a mystery to me. Alas, human beings have a lot of nonsensical intuitions.)

That said, if you’re honest about your intentions, and what you really want is to blame someone else, and not to find the truth, and the possibility of blaming someone innocent isn’t inconsistent with other explicit or implicit pro-social goals of yours, then to point the finger without basing your conclusion on the examination of the evidence isn’t strictly irrational, since it would be consistent with your goals, to which the facts aren’t relevant. However, that sort of approach would be pretty anti-social, and I doubt anyone having that goal would be honest enough to admit it. If your stated goal is to find the truth, then the only honest thing to do is look at the evidence, follow it, and be prepared that it might go either way.

It does no good to write in the bottom line before you start if your goal is to find out the truth. You won’t arrive at the truth that way, and if your emotions tell you the truth is what you want, then that behavior would be irrational. In the words of Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Your effectiveness as a rationalist is determined by whichever algorithm actually writes the bottom line of your thoughts.” I strongly recommend you read Eliezer’s posts The Bottom Line as well as Rationalization, as they address the issue you seem to be struggling with.

hannahelisabeth 14 Nov 2012 20:55 UTC
1 point
in reply to: TheOtherDave’s comment on: Something to Protect
It doesn’t depend on N if N is consistent between options A and B, but it would if they were different. It would make for an odd hypothetical scenario, but I was just saying that it’s not made completely explicit.

hannahelisabeth 14 Nov 2012 20:53 UTC
1 point
in reply to: TheOtherDave’s comment on: Something to Protect
I’m making a point about human psychology. The value of a life obviously does not change.

Although, I suppose theoretically, if the concern is not over individual lives, but over the survival of the species as a whole, and there are only 500 people to be saved, then picking the 400 option would make sense.

hannahelisabeth 14 Nov 2012 20:50 UTC
1 point
in reply to: ArisKatsaris’s comment on: Something to Protect
I think that rephrasing improves it.

hannahelisabeth 14 Nov 2012 13:57 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: MugaSofer’s comment on: Something to Protect
Or, for all we know, there are only 400 lives to be saved in the first instance. Saving 400 out of 400 is different than saving 400 out of 7 billion. The context of the proposition makes a difference, and it’s always best to be clear and unambiguous in the paramaters which will necessarily guide ones decision as to which choice is the best.

hannahelisabeth 14 Nov 2012 13:40 UTC
1 point
on: Something to Protect
1. Save 400 lives, with certainty.
2. Save 500 lives, 90% probability; save no lives, 10% probability.
I think it ought to be made explicit in the first scenario that 100 lives are being lost with certainty, because it’s not necessarily implied by the proposition. I know a lot of people inferred it, but the hypothetical situation never stated it was ⁴⁰⁰⁄₅₀₀, so it could just as easily be ⁴⁰⁰⁄₄₀₀, in which case choosing it would certianly be preferable to the second option. I think it’s important you make your hypothetical situations clear and unambiguous. Besides, a 100% probability of 100 deaths explicitly stated will influence the way people perceive the question. If you leave out writing out that 100 people are dying, you’re also subtly encouraging your readers to forget about those people as well, so it comes as little surprise that some would prefer option 1.

hannahelisabeth 13 Nov 2012 22:36 UTC
5 points
in reply to: gokhalea’s comment on: Feeling Rational
Rationality doesn’t require that you not feel the emotions, it just requires that you avoid letting them bias you towards one conclusion over another. You should follow the evidence to determine the level of guilt of the perpetrator. There is no causal link from how you feel about the event to how it actually happened. I’d have to say that in terms of interpreting the event, there is no room to “agree to disagree” if all the facts are understood and agreed upon. Certainly there’s room to feel differently about it based on your own relative situation, but it has no bearing on the interpretation of the event.

The way I see it, emotions and reason serve two complimentary functions. Emotions tell you your goal, what you want. Reason tells you how to get there. Your emotions may say “Go south!” and reason may say “There is an obstacle in my path. In order to reach my destination, I need to first make a detour.” If you allow your emotions to override your sense of reason, you’ll try to go south and plow straight into the wall, and that lack of reason will hinder your ability to achieve your desired ends. If you think that reason is the way and emotions are the enemy and thus undervalue your emotions, you’ll wander around aimlessly, as you’ll have no sense of where it is you actually want to go. If one were truly Spock-like, and bad events failed to result in negative affect, there would be no reason to think of them as bad and thus no logical reason to avoid them. (Here you could argue that, well, if it affects other people negatively, that would be reason. But in that case you’re assuming empathy—that when bad things happen to others, it makes you feel bad, which is an emotional response.)

hannahelisabeth 13 Nov 2012 22:22 UTC
1 point
in reply to: GracefulDave’s comment on: Feeling Rational
To some extent this is true. Strong emotions do have the power to shut down activity in the executive centers of the brain. There’s a physiological basis for the idea of “seeing red” when you’re angry. However, you can also train yourself to stop your emotional reactions in their tracks, think about them, and change them. You can choose not to be angry, but you likely need education and training to do so, and you may not be successful 100% of the time. But you can certainly improve dramatically.

hannahelisabeth 13 Nov 2012 22:18 UTC
−2 points
in reply to: Grognor’s comment on: Feeling Rational
It does benefit you to feel sad because your brother died, though not exactly directly. The reason you feel sad is because you were attached to him. You would not feel sad if he were a random, namless (to you) stranger. Having that attachment is beneficial, even if the consequent emotion is not. But the two are inextricably tied together, and the prospect of sadness at the loss is part of what keeps you wanting to look after each other.

The question of rationality in emotions is better considered in the framework of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. An emtion is irrational if it results from an irrational belief, one that is dogmatic, rigid, inflexible. When you recognize this and replace the irrational belief with the rational one, the irrational emotion tends to be replaced by a rational one.

In the example of the goblin, the anger is not a direct result of the goblin tying your shoes together, but of your beliefs about the goblin tying your shoes together. Common anger-inciting beliefs are “he shouldn’t have done the” or “I can’t stand that he did that.” But why shouldn’t he have done that? Is there some law stating goblins can’t tie shoes together that was violated? Can you not stand that? Will you expire on the spot if that happens? No, what you really ought to realize is that “it’s unfortunate and inconvenient that the goblin tied my shoes together.” And when you think that thought, the anger typically turns into mild irritation or disappointment.

In the case of losing a brother, being sad and mourning is a normal, natural, and healthy response. If you went around thinking “I can’t live without him” or “I can’t stand that he died” you’re going to upset yourself irrationally and likely end up unduly depressed. If you replace those thoughts with “It’s very sad that my brother died, but I can tolerate it and life will still go on” you will likely be sad and mournful, but then move on with your life as most people do when they lose loved ones.

hannahelisabeth 13 Nov 2012 20:42 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: amya1989’s comment on: Feeling Rational
Yes. This is called Rational Emotive Behavior Theory, and it was developed by Albert Ellis.

hannahelisabeth 13 Nov 2012 15:52 UTC
1 point
in reply to: Peterdjones’s comment on: Belief in Self-Deception
My point was that it’s misleading to those trying to interpet it directly into a logical statement, which is what Eliezer seemed to be trying to do. I’m sure there are lots of people who could read that sentiment and understand the meaning behind it (or at least a meaning; some people interpret it differently than others). It’s certainly possible to comprehend (obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to explain it), but the meaning is nevertheless in an ambiguous form, and it did confuse at least some people.