Some think that if only we could teach more history to screenwriters, we’d get more realistic historical movies. Or if only we could teach rationality to journalists, we’d get less fake news. Or if only we could teach ad writers more about products features and prices, we’d get more informative ads. Or teach charity workers about effectiveness. Or teach statistics to scientists.
I can't decide if Robin has rediscovered the human condition or the Principal-agent problem*. I don't mean this in a dismissive way, I just want to point our that the deeper we look into Wicked Problems** the deeper we look into ourselves. We have met the enemy and he is us.
Many people find great amounts of frustration when they contemplate these sort of informational failures. But I prefer the long view that does a historical compare and thus sees beautiful progress in all directions. Ya it's not perfect but at least it's better then last century. The genocides seem to be getting fewer-and-farther-between if you buy Pinker's numbers. It will be wonderful when we stop them entirely but we lack the social cohesion this year. Three cheers for next year!
we could achieve these more accurate states, things would be better
Consider that reading effective altruism blogs, trusting science and ads less, and listening to Jordan Peterson talk about narrative in movies are all costs on the consumer that could be shifted to producers.
I think the meta assumption often made is, if we could achieve these more accurate states, things would be better. It's actually more important to show we care than live to 100, or to show we're helping than to help. It's also important to simplify stories in our favor, to desire our useless goals, and to over-rate our in-group, put down the out-group, and make sure we're always the hero in our own stories. At the same time it's important we deny these facts and find them a bit despicable, lest they become norms and we all die alone in the woods.
Physically our brains lie to us all the time, and we're better for it. At the functional level they have to -- for example our visual cortex has a bandwidth of only 1MB/second. The only way we see all the leaves on that tree is by our brain telling us we see them, and us believing it.
Our true motivations being hidden from us (in the Elephant in the Brain sense) is probably the key adaptation our brains made to enable high intelligence and scalable social systems. We need to be selfish and we need to cooperate. Self deception is a pretty good workaround.
This actually sounds a lot like Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Inadequate Equilibria", which Robin reviewed here.
I can't decide if Robin has rediscovered the human condition or the Principal-agent problem*. I don't mean this in a dismissive way, I just want to point our that the deeper we look into Wicked Problems** the deeper we look into ourselves. We have met the enemy and he is us.
Many people find great amounts of frustration when they contemplate these sort of informational failures. But I prefer the long view that does a historical compare and thus sees beautiful progress in all directions. Ya it's not perfect but at least it's better then last century. The genocides seem to be getting fewer-and-farther-between if you buy Pinker's numbers. It will be wonderful when we stop them entirely but we lack the social cohesion this year. Three cheers for next year!
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...**https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
we could achieve these more accurate states, things would be better
Consider that reading effective altruism blogs, trusting science and ads less, and listening to Jordan Peterson talk about narrative in movies are all costs on the consumer that could be shifted to producers.
I think the meta assumption often made is, if we could achieve these more accurate states, things would be better. It's actually more important to show we care than live to 100, or to show we're helping than to help. It's also important to simplify stories in our favor, to desire our useless goals, and to over-rate our in-group, put down the out-group, and make sure we're always the hero in our own stories. At the same time it's important we deny these facts and find them a bit despicable, lest they become norms and we all die alone in the woods.
Physically our brains lie to us all the time, and we're better for it. At the functional level they have to -- for example our visual cortex has a bandwidth of only 1MB/second. The only way we see all the leaves on that tree is by our brain telling us we see them, and us believing it.
Our true motivations being hidden from us (in the Elephant in the Brain sense) is probably the key adaptation our brains made to enable high intelligence and scalable social systems. We need to be selfish and we need to cooperate. Self deception is a pretty good workaround.