Hi. This is my first time to this website, and my third comment today. I’ve been listening to the show “Bayesian Conspiracy” and made some posts to the subreddit. So I guess I’m not a good lurker.
I was intrigued by Arandur’s article entitled “The Goal of the Bayesian Conspiracy” which was essentially,
(1) eliminate most pain and suffering and inequity.
(2) develop technologies for eternal life.
The ordering here, that Arandur suggested, I thought, was quite wise. I recently saw the series “Dollhouse” and I felt like it gave a pretty good description of what would probably happen if you reversed the order.
And then I went on to read the article on “The Failures of Eld Science”… Well, skim.… Like I said, I’m not a good lurker. And then I read “Rationality as a Martial Art” which was short so I read the whole thing.
I guess I have very entrenched views on the failures of Eld science, and Rationality as a martial art, because, I’ve been arguing about Special and General Relativity online for about two decades, and occasionally debating biblical interpretation with Christians for most of my life.
Hide in plain sight
Before you can step forward you have to be where you are.
Don’t be ashamed of your ignorance, but don’t cling to it either.
Desire the things you have, commit to what you love.
Don’t look for false things. Don’t seek out error to make yourself look smart. Don’t confuse counterattack with defense.
Stand up for what you believe in—especially when you realize you look foolish, and still believe it.
When pulled in different directions, stick with your commitments.
Get good at what you have to do. It will be more fun and people will appreciate you more.
Be clear with your meaning.
Try to understand others from their own perspectives, and with their own meanings.
Acknowledge the hypothesis. Don’t confuse what you believe to be a false belief with a moral failure.
Be the heart before you be the head. Agreeing to disagree is the start of a conversation… not the end.
I have two MS degrees, one in physics, and one in math… I got them in the wrong order… as knowing how to do a differential equation would have been REALLY helpful, in physics. But I’m really good at trig, both regular and hyperbolic.
What is the rubric that marks the difference between a good semantic argument/point/question, and a bad semantic argument/point/question.
I would say there must be some rubric that marks the difference between “seeking clarity and understanding” and “seeking ambiguity and confusion”.
Sometimes it is the person saying “I would like to mention this other definition of the word” who is seeking clarity.
Sometimes it is the person saying “Oh, come on, you know what I mean.” who is seeking clarity.
And sometimes it’s not necessarily about facts… It’s about who get’s to decide what is proper, and what is not. In each of the examples, “chemicals in food”, “technology at the dinner table.” one can legitimately ask—what concerns you about the chemicals in the food? What concerns you about the technology at the dinner table?
For the chemicals in the food example, what is probably a concern that they must rely on their own knowledge to decide whether each of the ingredients in the package is safe, and a lack of trust in the systems government and business have worked out to assure that foods are safe. That’s actually a reasonable conversation to have, but not necessarily one you want to have before you leave the grocery store.
For “technology at the dinner table” one can probably reasonably assume that this is a question about propriety… Namely whether eating together at a dinner table constitutes a shared family experience, or if it is a multiplayer solitaire experience. Of course, one might note that the table and chairs are, in some sense, simple technology designed to support this shared family experience.