Eliezer: what’s the “crisis-of-belief” technique you’re refering to there? the whole “try to take a while visualizing what if you’re wrong/the other view is right, nevermind whether it is or not, just try to figure out what the world would be like, what you’d do if you found out that was really really true, etc etc, to leave yourself an ‘out’”? or was that something entirely different, or is that just a made up phrase with no specific technique in mind in particular?
scott: Many? I thought the whole safecracking thing was basically just Feynman. What others did “naughty” stuff and what did they do?
I was wondering the same thing, and did a search of this web site to see if I could find any definition. I could not, but it brought to mind a problem I’ve come across many times.
Assuming “Eld-Scientists” referred to, are the scientists of the real world, I would describe the “crisis-of-belief” in this way. Modern scientists say things like “Science does not care what you believe”.
However, actually, what they generally mean by such a thing is “I do not need to acknowledge your hypothesis, because it disagrees with what I know to be true.”
The crisis lies in the fact that “what one knows to be true” is actually only belief. While an Eld-Scientist MIGHT be correct in dismissing a hypothesis because it conflicts with what “he knows to be true,” he is using an incorrect method of reasoning.
The true scientific method requires that you fully understand and acknowledge multiple hypotheses and test them against empirical evidence. What often happens instead, with modern science, is, for instance, a scientist will say, something like “I don’t fully understand the leading theory, but I know it is true… And yours is not it, therefore I do not need to acknowledge or understand your theory.” This is the crisis of belief that is going on among modern science.
Eliezer: what’s the “crisis-of-belief” technique you’re refering to there? the whole “try to take a while visualizing what if you’re wrong/the other view is right, nevermind whether it is or not, just try to figure out what the world would be like, what you’d do if you found out that was really really true, etc etc, to leave yourself an ‘out’”? or was that something entirely different, or is that just a made up phrase with no specific technique in mind in particular?
scott: Many? I thought the whole safecracking thing was basically just Feynman. What others did “naughty” stuff and what did they do?
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/BcYBfG8KomcpcxkEg/crisis-of-faith
https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Crisis_of_faith
I was wondering the same thing, and did a search of this web site to see if I could find any definition. I could not, but it brought to mind a problem I’ve come across many times.
Assuming “Eld-Scientists” referred to, are the scientists of the real world, I would describe the “crisis-of-belief” in this way. Modern scientists say things like “Science does not care what you believe”.
However, actually, what they generally mean by such a thing is “I do not need to acknowledge your hypothesis, because it disagrees with what I know to be true.”
The crisis lies in the fact that “what one knows to be true” is actually only belief. While an Eld-Scientist MIGHT be correct in dismissing a hypothesis because it conflicts with what “he knows to be true,” he is using an incorrect method of reasoning.
The true scientific method requires that you fully understand and acknowledge multiple hypotheses and test them against empirical evidence. What often happens instead, with modern science, is, for instance, a scientist will say, something like “I don’t fully understand the leading theory, but I know it is true… And yours is not it, therefore I do not need to acknowledge or understand your theory.” This is the crisis of belief that is going on among modern science.