robertskmiles comments on Conspiracy Theories as Agency Fictions - LessWrong

30 [deleted] 09 June 2012 03:15PM

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Comment author: gwern 09 June 2012 03:42:34PM 5 points [-]

This needs a lot more work before it's a great essay. The way I would write it is basically 'a classic evolutionary explanation of religion is overactive false-positive agent-detection; here's quotes from several books by the likes of Daniel Dennett etc and also here's a few studies courtesy of gwern about kids; now that we understand the idea and find it plausible, let me extend it to... conspiracy theories! and so on.'

Comment author: robertskmiles 15 June 2012 02:38:34PM *  2 points [-]

I think starting with religion would be a mistake, for standard 'politics is the mindkiller' reasons.