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Stephen Diamond's avatar

There's an ongoing discussion at Less Wrong (Urges vs. Goals) in which, at least broadly, goal setting lines up with far mental processes, whereas "urges" are near. This suggests that far thinking serves a more important function than hypocrisy, as we pretty obviously can't function at all effectively without goals. I wonder if Hanson agrees with this alignment.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Near mode of thought is similar to the system-oriented/aspergers/autistic side of the thought spectrum. More male oriented? Far mode is simialr to the more emotional/intuitive/imaginative side of the thought spectrum. More female oriented?

As far as I can tell, everything is far mode. Consider reasoning about bayesian Induction. Every single step of your reasoning (in so far as you are conscious of it), has to involve categorization (other wise you would not be conscious of it!) So in fact, every single conscious step of bayesian reasoning can be translated into a description in terms of analogical inference (far mode). This suggests to me that far mode wraps near mode.

I say to those who have swalled the 'pill' offered by the Sing Inst/Less Wrong world view, beware! Beware you are not still in the Matrix! Consider the bias that may be caused by over-emphasis and skill with near mode (the aspergers-autistic-system-oriented side of the spectrum). Isn't it highly plausible that lack of far-mode skill could be causing these people to miss big obvious flaws in their world-view? The answer is yes!

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