I believe that knowledge is useful, and that there are [_general_ algorithms](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HcCpvYLoSFP4iAqSz/rationality-appreciating-cognitive-algorithms)—patterns of thinking and talking—that produce knowledge. You can't just get _one_ thing wrong—every wrong answer comes from a bug in your _process_, and there's an infinite family of other inputs that could trigger the same bug. [The calculator that says `6 + 7 = 14`](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yaCwW8nPQeJknbCgf/free-speech-and-triskaidekaphobic-calculators-a-reply-to) isn't just going to mislead you if you use it to predict what happens when you combine a stack of ●●●●●● pennies and a stack of ●●●●●●● pennies—it's _not a calculator_. The function-that-it-computes is _not arithmetic_.
-I am not particularly intelligent man. If I ever seem to be saying true and important things that almost no one else is saying, it's not because I'm unusually insightful, but because I'm unusually bad at keeping secrets. There are ... _operators_ among us, [savvy](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/) Straussian motherfuckers who know and see everything I can, and more—but who think [it doesn't matter](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NG4XQEL5PTyguDMff/but-it-doesn-t-matter) that [not everybody knows](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/everybody-knows/).
+I am not particularly intelligent man. If I ever seem to be saying true and important things that almost no one else is saying, it's not because I'm unusually insightful, but because I'm unusually bad at keeping secrets. There are ... _operators_ among us, [savvy](http://web.archive.org/web/20200428132642/https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/) Straussian motherfuckers who know and see everything I can, and more—but who think [it doesn't matter](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NG4XQEL5PTyguDMff/but-it-doesn-t-matter) that [not everybody knows](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/everybody-knows/).
And I guess ... I think it matters? [One of the evilest reactionary bloggers mentioned the difference](https://blog.jim.com/economics/draining-the-swamp-2/) between a state religion that requires you to believe in the unseen, and one that requires you to disbelieve in what is seen. My thesis is that a state religion that requires you to fluidly doublethink around the implications of "Some women have penises", will also falter over something even the Straussians have [to protect](/2019/Jul/the-source-of-our-power/). But I can't prove it.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff