TGGP4 comments on Guardians of the Truth - Less Wrong

31 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 December 2007 06:44PM

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Comment author: TGGP4 16 December 2007 07:32:08AM 4 points [-]

Beaten to the punch on Brin. Mencius Moldbug provides an interesting contrast on the ideal of "progress", though I can't decide on a specific post to single out.

Regarding the Inquisition, there are some who claim that that our conception of it is the result of the same sort of Protestant "black legend" type propaganda that causes us to think of Gustavus Adolphus as a hero but Wallenstein as a villain. Don't know myself, but I find the idea interesting.

an academic field that stops making active progress tends to turn mean. Which ones were you thinking of? I know you don't want to upset people here, but you seem to be making a claim without providing any evidence. Lysenkoism, perhaps?

The Inquisitors were not Truth-Guardians. They were Doctrine-Guardians. That is a very different matter. Truth does not require guarding. Doctrines often do. I thought that was what made a doctrine a doctrine. At any rate, since the Inquisitors believed it was true, I don't have a problem calling them Truth-Guardians.

Prediction markets are a great way to turn the tables in favor of seekers vs guardians. The guardians will bankrupt themselves trying to keep the "correct" beliefs high in price while the seekers will advantageously extract more and more money from them.