Caledonian2 comments on The Ultimate Source - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 June 2008 09:01AM

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Comment author: Caledonian2 16 June 2008 11:21:27PM -1 points [-]

I see we're once again trying to delete comments. What fun!

"There - now my sensation of freedom indicates something coherent; and most of the time, I will have no reason to doubt the sensation's veracity"

You cannot change what a sensation is triggered by and thus indicates. The properties of the sensation have no necessary relationship with the stimuli that induce it.

We always have reason to doubt the sensations we experience, precisely because they are manufactured by pre-conscious systems whose operation we do not possess an awareness of. Even a little experience with optical illusions is enough to convince any reasonable person that our sensations are constructed and non-veridical.

The temptation to go along with our feelings without examining them rationally is usually a sign of the drive to minimize the effort of thought. It is an extremely dangerous sign for a rationalist, as it means you've begun to rationalize instead of attempting to be rational.