Jotto999 comments on Leave a Line of Retreat - Less Wrong

58 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 February 2008 11:57PM

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Comment author: L._Zoel 26 February 2008 12:20:21AM 13 points [-]

How many rationalists would retain their belief in reason, if they could accurately visualize that hypothetical world in which there was no rationality and they themselves have become irrational?

Comment author: Jotto999 27 November 2012 11:33:06AM 3 points [-]

I'm not sure what "no rationality" would mean. Evolutionarily relevant kinds of rationality can still be expected, like preference to sexually fertile mates, fearing spiders/snakes/heights, and if we're still talking about something at all similar to Homo Sapiens, language and cultural learning and such, which require some amounts of rationality to use.

I wonder if you might be imagining rationality in the form of essentialism, allowing you to universally turn the attribute off, but in reality there no such off switch that is compatible with having decision making agents.