rhollerith comments on Typical Mind and Politics - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Yvain 12 June 2009 12:28PM

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Comment author: michaelkeenan 13 June 2009 10:44:35AM 1 point [-]

I have a strong pain signal from lost money and from lost time. To the extent that I can introspect on the workings of my insula, I think that this is one impulse for me, rather than two as Yvain describes - one for time and one for money.

If I am correct that my brain processes the loss of time using the same moral hardware as the loss of money, what could explain why some people have one impulse covering both cases, while other people have a separate one for each?

Comment author: rhollerith 13 June 2009 12:35:33PM *  2 points [-]

I have a strong pain signal from lost money and from lost time. To the extent that I can introspect on the workings of my insula, I think that this is one impulse for me, rather than two as Yvain describes - one for time and one for money.

The most parsimonious explanation of what you observe is that it is human nature to be overconfident of the results of introspection.

Comment author: MichaelVassar 13 June 2009 12:40:31PM 1 point [-]

I voted that up, because it's an important point, but I want to emphasize that I don't want to encourage the scientistic attitude of rejecting introspection as a valid tool either. Given the community I think that should have been emphasized.

Comment author: rhollerith 13 June 2009 02:01:10PM 0 points [-]

I agree that introspection certainly can be a valid tool.