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ciphergoth comments on Raising the Sanity Waterline - Less Wrong
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Would you say that "We have no way of being rigorous about it" means that we shouldn't teach the meme analogy?
It means that if I talk about memes, I leave myself open to an easy challenge to which I currently have no reply. I'd really like a good reply, since I think it's a genuinely useful aid to thinking about what it means for an idea to be popular, so if you have one I'm keen to hear it!
Suppose I present a concrete non-rigorous analogy: "A chain letter is like an organism with a habitat of human minds.". What is the easy challenge that I have left myself open to? I already freely conceded that it was non-rigorous.
Johnicholas:
You leave yourself open to the reply that the non-rigorousness of the analogy makes it useless or even pernicious. Owning up to a fault doesn't make it go away.
Congratulations, you have just reduced the proper use of humility to a single proverb. I shall endeavor to go around repeating this.