From: Zack M. Davis Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2026 23:21:14 +0000 (-0700) Subject: "Contra Piper": highlight the tension, making dramatic irony more obvious X-Git-Url: http://unremediatedgender.space/source?a=commitdiff_plain;h=4b50d89aecb8ce1f4ef048294d0817199eee4861;p=An_Algorithmic_Lucidity.git "Contra Piper": highlight the tension, making dramatic irony more obvious I had some brainstorming help from Opus 5 here. --- diff --git a/content/drafts/contra-piper-on-when-conversation-is-possible.md b/content/drafts/contra-piper-on-when-conversation-is-possible.md index 48ffb24..58d86ed 100644 --- a/content/drafts/contra-piper-on-when-conversation-is-possible.md +++ b/content/drafts/contra-piper-on-when-conversation-is-possible.md @@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ In the same way, people don't need to know what it feels like to be me in order If I buy cookies for the [salon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(gathering)) from a bakery owned by my girlfriend in Australia (at a substantial markup for international shipping), it kind of makes sense for other salon members to wonder if my choice might have been biased by nepotism rather than reflecting true optimization towards the goal of the salon having the best desserts. -At the same time, my belief that I wasn't swayed by nepotism is something I can provide reasoning and evidence for: for example, I could try showing the other salon members the notes and spreadsheets I compiled while comparison shopping, which justify my belief that my girlfriend just happens to be the optimal dessert vendor for the salon. +At the same time, my belief that I wasn't swayed by nepotism is something I can provide reasoning and evidence for: for example, I could try showing the other salon members the notes and spreadsheets I compiled while comparison shopping, which justify my belief that my girlfriend just happens to be the optimal dessert vendor for the salon according to the obvious objective criteria—price, quality, [Anzac biscuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_biscuit) availability, and owner's prior familiarity with the salon's reading list. -I might not convince them—it would be undignified for me to play dumb about the low prior probability of the coincidence I'm claiming—but at least we have _something to talk about_: it's not a deadlock between an unfalsifiable accusation of self-deception and an unfalsifiable denial, because my catering decision (and therefore the beliefs and motives that led to it) was tangled up with empirical realities of the world. If my comparison shopping was thorough and credibly documents the many ways in which my girlfriend's bakery is just the best, that makes my story about only wanting the best cookies for the salon more credible; if I didn't really shop around much, that makes my story less credible. The correctness of my understanding of my beliefs and motives is something I can rationally defend to skeptics in front of third parties; it's not something that needs to be assumed as a prerequisite for even talking at all. +I might not convince them, but at least we have _something to talk about_: it's not a deadlock between an unfalsifiable accusation of self-deception and an unfalsifiable denial, because my catering decision (and therefore the beliefs and motives that led to it) was tangled up with empirical realities of the world. If my comparison shopping was thorough and credibly documents the many ways in which my girlfriend's bakery is just the best, that makes my story about only wanting the best cookies for the salon more credible; if I didn't really shop around much, that makes my story less credible. The correctness of my understanding of my beliefs and motives is something I can rationally defend to skeptics in front of third parties; it's not something that needs to be assumed as a prerequisite for even talking at all. ## Why the Self-Understanding of Those Who Think It's Impossible Should Be Rejected