pjeby comments on Spock's Dirty Little Secret - Less Wrong

46 Post author: pjeby 25 March 2009 07:07PM

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Comment author: pjeby 26 March 2009 03:15:33PM 0 points [-]

epistemic rationality is about believing things that are actually true, rather than believing things that you believe to be true.

And that's why it's a good thing to know what you're up against, with respect to the hardware upon which you're trying to do that.

Comment deleted 26 March 2009 03:27:43PM [-]
Comment author: pjeby 26 March 2009 04:42:34PM 2 points [-]

That which proposes hypotheses is not exactly the same piece of brainware as that which makes you laugh and cry and love

No... the former merely sorts those hypotheses based on information from the latter. Or more precisely, the raw data from which those hypotheses are generated, has been stored in such a manner that retrieval is prioritized on emotion, and such that any such emotions are played back as an integral part of retrieval.

One's physio-emotional state at the time of retrieval also has an effect on retrieval priorities... if you're angry, for example, memories tagged "angry" are prioritized.