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Z._M._Davis comments on A Fable of Science and Politics - Less Wrong
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You know, sometimes I think Daria's attitude is much healthier than Ferris's.
I once told a friend, "I think I'm a Daria, but I know the correct answer is Ferris". Then I realized the absurdity of that statement, and had much pondering to do.
Healthier for what? Or 'why do you think this?' I should ask. Because it seems clear to me that Ferris's reaction is more fun, and more beneficial for being right about stuff. This is why I am curious.
Open question for anyone who agrees with Mr.Davis.
Ferris is going to get killed the moment he meets Aditya. Daria is going to be tentatively welcomed as a new ally.
But what causes others to welcome you is not always the best attitude. I also don't see why Aditya would kill him, as he wasn't a green and is likely to readily admit that the sky is blue.
(four years, seven months later)
I was wrong. As I recall, the sentiment that prompted me to write the grandparent was that Daria actually cares about whether the sky is blue or green, whereas Ferris is just wireheading on idle curiosity and doesn't actually care about the sky at all. I said that Daria's attitude was healthier because I thought it was appropriate to feel some shock and horror upon discovering that one of your most cherished beliefs is false.
But in retrospect, this is stupid. Daria is failing to distinguish between the map and the territory: if she actually cares about the sky, then the horrifying realization shouldn't be that she has to relinquish her belief that the sky is green, but rather that the sky is in fact blue, and that fixing this state of affairs is likely to be an extremely difficult engineering problem if it's physically possible at all. On the other hand, if what Daria really cares about is tax or divorce laws, or the shape of the Earth, or fitting in with her friends and family who perform the behavior of asserting that the sky is green, then those are different problems that need to be handled separately from the question about what color the sky is.