Seth_Goldin comments on The things we know that we know ain't so - Less Wrong

16 Post author: PhilGoetz 11 January 2010 09:59PM

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Comment author: Seth_Goldin 12 January 2010 07:29:47PM 1 point [-]

Yes, this sounds more like a problem with textbooks than with science itself.

Textbooks are often censored for political reasons, such as Japanese textbooks' treatment of Nanjing, or American textbooks' treatment of the Japanese internment camps.

This is hard science though, so this won't suffice as an explanation. I fear that people are attached to superstitions about how the brain works. Maybe people like an inaccurately simplified explanation of the brain that claims that specific, local parts of the brain perform specific functions.

We know that fMRI research is pretty sketchy, but even smart people like Sam Harris seem to rely on it too much.