You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

atorm comments on Two Kinds of Irrationality and How to Avoid One of Them - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: ChrisHallquist 02 February 2012 06:13PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (9)

Comments (9)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: atorm 03 February 2012 03:05:27PM *  3 points [-]

I think this might be a case where double-think is useful: let your mind lightly touch on the probable outcomes of various beliefs, then settle heavily on the most useful one. This might be advantageous to society as well as just an individual. To quote Terry Pratchett in Hogfather:

"All right," said Susan, "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable."
"NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE."
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers?"
"YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES."
"So we can believe the big ones?"
"YES. JUSTICE. DUTY. MERCY. THAT SORT OF THING."

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit