jimmy comments on The Mystery of the Haunted Rationalist - Less Wrong

69 Post author: Yvain 08 March 2009 08:39PM

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Comment author: jimmy 09 March 2009 06:14:54AM 12 points [-]

Many of the comments focus on the fact that there are other fears to account for, and that is definitely worth pointing out. However, If Yvain (or anyone) still feels that they would be scared after controlling for them, then his point is valid even if others wouldn't be scared.

I don't see the problem with calling it another level of "belief", since the emotional level seems to be acting as if it "believes" that ghosts are dangerous. It's just that the system that has this belief is in poor communication with the system that has contradicting beliefs (how to best "communicate" and fix this is an interesting topic which is worth it's own post).

I don't see anything significantly difference between fear and ghosts and fears that are "hard wired by evolution" in people, and we all have those. It seems that his point that we can't be modeled as agents that believe one thing (though they may profess otherwise) is not only valid, but important, since it affects everyone at some level.