Tag Archives: rationality

Beware Isolated Demands For Rigor

I. From Identity, Personal Identity, and the Self by John Perry: “There is something about practical things that knocks us off our philosophical high horses. Perhaps Heraclitus really thought he couldn’t step in the same river twice. Perhaps he even … Continue reading

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Getting Eulered

There is an apocryphal story about the visit of the great atheist philosopher Diderot to the Russian court. Diderot was quite the clever debater, and soon this scandalous new atheism thing was the talk of St. Petersburg. This offended reigning … Continue reading

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Random Noise Is Our Most Valuable Resource

Yesterday I suggested that it will be surprisingly easy to build “creative” computers, because what we think of as “creativity” is just a temporary suppression of our mind’s inbuilt tendency to avoid unusual thoughts that violate its accustomed pattern. A … Continue reading

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Unspoken Ground Assumptions Of Discussion

To say a thing is implicitly to claim to believe it. This has chilling effects on one’s exercise of free speech. — @fakeysaysthings 1. Are you trying to present the correct balance between positions (“judge mode”) or present one side … Continue reading

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HeartMath Considered Incoherent

[Note: all opinions expressed here are my own. Nothing to be taken as medical advice.] A group called the Institute of HeartMath has been remarkably persistent at making their way into my hospital. A couple of months ago I had … Continue reading

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

I am going to do something very dangerous today, something that makes me acutely aware of my own mortality. I am going to disagree with Robin Hanson. In my defense, he wrote an entire blog post called Don’t Be ‘Rationalist’. … Continue reading

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Minutes From The Michigan Rationalist Meetup

0:58 – Discussion of unschooling. Two of the attendees were unschooled, and their opinions pretty much paralleled where the discussion went here – kids who are smart enough will learn stuff whether or not anyone is sending them to school; … Continue reading

Don’t Be An Asch-Hole

Contrary to the direction the comments took, my Asch story the other day wasn’t intended to make any special commentary on families. That was just the first issue I thought of that wasn’t already so politicized that the story would … Continue reading

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Asches to Asches

[Content note: fictional story contains gaslighting-type elements. May induce Cartesian skepticism] You wake up in one of those pod things like in The Matrix. There’s a woman standing in front of you, wearing a lab coat, holding a clipboard. “Hi,” … Continue reading

Nydwracu’s Fnords

I. The fnords first appear in Anton-Wilson and Shea’s book Illuminatus. Educators, operating as tools of the titular conspiracy, hypnotize all primary school children to have a panic reaction to the trigger word “fnord”. The children, who remember nothing of … Continue reading