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John_Maxwell_IV comments on Least Signaling Activities? - Less Wrong
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Taking a walk alone in the hills because you enjoy the scenery.
Be careful. I was once in a class where we played two truths and a lie to get to know each other. There was another fellow who had "I have survived by myself five days in the wilderness" as one of his truths. He got big props from the girls.
Do you suppose he went into the wilderness with the express purpose of impressing girls? I doubt it. He was probably more interested in the scenery.
If I understand Hanson's thread of thought, signaling doesn't need to be 'express'. Given the value of self-deception, signaling might well be better off hiding itself from consciousness.
And even so, signaling gives information. If I pick my nose in public, I'm sending powerful signals to the people around me - both about my hygiene and my social adeptness - but am I expressly thinking about those consequences? I'm more likely to be thinking 'Aah, that's better!'
Right, that was my point. Even the things that don't seem to be about signaling could be about signaling.
It depends on what you mean by about---beware teleological capture. Suppose that your contemporary really, really likes scenery, and also, separately, furthermore, likes to brag about the time he spent in the wilderness to observe the scenery. In describing your contemporary's behavior, we can simply note these two separate facts, without making any potentially confusing assertions about what the behavior is really "about."