fubarobfusco comments on Open thread for December 17-23, 2013 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (301)
This is turning the argument on its head.
The point isn't that knowing a purpose for something is a reason to keep the thing. If we know the reason for it and judge it good, of course we shall keep it. Banal. If we know a reason for a thing, and judge it bad, then the argument isn't an encouragement to keep it either. No Chesterton's Fence is the argument that us not knowing the reason behind something is a reason to keep it. Applying it to things, for which we easily learn why they are there, is pretty much redundant as far as heuristics go.
Let me quite directly, from his novel The Thing (1929). In the chapter entitled, “The Drift from Domesticity” he writes:
Here's a Bayesian counterargument for cultural practices:
Culture is more likely to have retained the instruction "Do X!" but not retained knowledge of X's original purpose, if that purpose is not relevant any more.
If X's purpose is still relevant, then retaining and teaching about X's original purpose provides greater incentive for learning and teaching X, making X more likely to be retained. But if X's original purpose is not still relevant, then retaining knowledge of the original purpose is a disincentive to learn and teach X itself, making X less likely to be retained. So, given that X is still taught, learning that its original purpose is known is evidence that it is still relevant; whereas learning that it is not known is evidence that it is not still relevant.
If you are using the model of memetic selection, then useful things Xs are unlikely to have true explanations of why they are useful attached to them, but the most virulent ones. Sometimes they are the same, but obviously often they aren't. After all Robin Hanson gets a lot of low hanging fruit showing us how for example school isn't about learning etc.
Sometimes the most persistent combination would be a behavior or practice without an explicit explanation at all.