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Grognor comments on Something to Protect - Less Wrong
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Comments (75)
So, is your point that we need a cause against which to evaluate the success of our mathematics? That perhaps this sort of feedback that, persumably, you encounter on a daily basis
I'm not going to get feedback on my final success or failure for, oh, probably at least another 10 years.
My point, rather, was that your post illustrated very clearly why rationality comes from having something to protect - you thought of doing something rational, but worried about the other people whose intuitions differed from yours, and what they might think of you. So that worry is a force binding you to the old way of thinking.
But if the thing you were protecting was far more important than what anyone thought of you, that wouldn't slow you down. This isn't about iconoclasm - it's about an inertial drag exerted by all the little fears and worries, an inertial drag of the way that you or others previously did things; the motivating force has to be more powerful than that, or you won't move.
I was going to post an issue I had with this article, personally.
What is most important to me is my intent to live for a very, very long time. Assuming I do better on average, I will end at a very high place! But how can living forever be more important to me than my own life? It obviously can't. But I think I see it now; it's more important to me than anything else.
Who cares what anyone thinks of my desire? I'll do whatever it takes, and I don't mean I'll give it a shot!
Second in importance to me is giving everyone else a chance to live a long time as well. I can't say that this is more important to me than my own life, but it coincides with the first one anyway.