Perplexed comments on Some Heuristics for Evaluating the Soundness of the Academic Mainstream in Unfamiliar Fields - Less Wrong

73 Post author: Vladimir_M 15 February 2011 09:17AM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 16 February 2011 08:25:09PM 4 points [-]

When dealing with the possibility of ideology influencing results one needs to be careful that one isn't engaging in projection based on one's own ideology influencing results. Otherwise this can turn into a fully general counter-argument. (To use one of the possibly more amusing examples, look at Conservapedia's labeling of the complex numbers and the axiom of choice as products of liberal ideology.)

Also, an incidental note about the issue of climate change: we should expect that most aspects of climate change will be bad. Humans have developed an extremely sensitive system over the last few hundred years. We've settled far more territory (especially on the coasts) and have far more complicated interacting agriculture. Changing the environment in any way is a change from the status quo. Changing the status quo in any large way will be economically disruptive. Note however that there are a handful of positives to an increase in average global temperature that are clearly acknowledged in the literature. Two examples are the creation of a north-west passage, and the opening of cold areas of Russia to more productive agriculture (or in some cases, any agriculture as the permafrost melts).

Comment author: Perplexed 17 February 2011 11:56:41PM 0 points [-]

one needs to be careful that one isn't engaging in projection based on one's own ideology

So very true. :)