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Furcas comments on Scott Aaronson's "On Self-Delusion and Bounded Rationality" - Less Wrong
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Comments (48)
I've upvoted this comment, but I disagree.
What should make this an effective horror story, as you put it, is that it's based on the very real possibility that there are people whose brains are wired in such a way that they can't be happy and rational at the same time. In order to more effectively 'scare' the reader, the author attempts to convince us that this is more than a possibility by making an argument by fictional example, the example being the main character.
My beef with the story is that this example is way too unlikely to be convincing as an argument (and therefore scary as a horror story). If there are people who can't possibly be rational and happy, I'm pretty sure it's not because they're incapable of keeping their tongues under control in order to start a relationship on the right foot.
I dunno. I mean, a lot of horror stories that are famous for being good talk about stuff that can never be and should never be, but that nonetheless (in-story) is. I think it's that sense of a comforting belief about the world being violated that makes a good horror story, even if the prior probability of that belief being wrong is low.