Incidentally, we can prove to some extent that different people do perceive colours differently. If you get a lamp producing a single-wavelength red light, another lamp producing a single-wavelength blue light, and a third lamp producing a single-wavelength violet light, then you can point the red and blue lamps at the same piece of white paper, and adjust their brightnesses until the combination looks just like the pure purple light. But then there will be people who disagree with you! They'll think that you need more blue, or more red!
EDIT: The technical details above are wrong, it's not possible to mix two pure wavelengths to match the colour of another pure wavelength. However there are multi-wavelength mixtures that look the same to one person but not to another.
Neat! Link?
I suspect that achieving a clear mental picture of the sheer depth and breadth of the mind projection fallacy is a powerful mental tool. It's hard for me to state this in clearer terms, though, because I don't have a wide collection of good examples of the mind projection fallacy.
In a discussion yesterday, we all had trouble finding actual example of the mind projection fallacy. Overall, we had essentially two examples:
Searching for "mind projection fallacy" on Less Wrong, I also see:
- Thinking that purpose is an inherent property of something, instead of it having been placed there by someone for some reason. (here)
- Mulling or arguing over definitions to solve object-level problems. (actually, most the ways words can be wrong sequence)
Imagine I'm trying to explain the mind projection fallacy to someone, and giving a handful of sharp, clear examples before explaining the general principle. What are some examples I could use? (I really want to explain it more sharply to myself, but also to members of my meetup.)