I notice you make a number of claims, but that of the ones I disagree with, none of them have “crux nature” for me. Which is to say, even if we were to hash out our disagreement such that I come to agree with you on the points, I wouldn’t change my stance.
(I might find it worthwhile to do that hashing out anyway if the points turn out to have crux nature for you. But in the spirit of good faith, I’ll focus on offering you a pathway by which you could convince me.)
But if I dig a bit, I think I see a hint of a possible double crux. You say:
A sense that discourse norms, and norms of “civility” generally, are the result of optimization for a purpose entirely distinct from the efficient transmission of information.
I agree with a steelman version of this. (I don’t think it is literally entirely distinct — but I also doubt you do, and I don’t want to pressure you to defend wording that I read as being intended for emphasis rather than precise description.) However, I imagine we disagree about how to value that. I think you mean to imply “…and that’s bad.” Whereas I would add instead “…and that’s good.”
In a little more detail, I think that civility helps to prevent many more distortions in communication than it causes, in most situations. This is less needed the more technical a field is (whatever that means): in math departments you can just optimize for saying the thing, and if seeming insults come out in the process then that’s mostly okay. But when working out social dynamics (like, say, whether a person who’s proposing to lead a new kind of rationalist house is trustworthy and doing a good thing), I think distorted thinking is nearly guaranteed without civility.
At which point I cease caring about “efficient transmission of information”, basically because I think (a) the information being sent is secretly laced with social subtext that’ll affect future transmissions as well as its own perceived truthiness, and (b) the “efficient” transmission is emotionally harder to receive.
So to be succinct, I claim that:
(1) Civility prevents more distortion in communication than it creates for a wide range of discussions, including this one about Dragon Army.
(2) I am persuadable as per (1). It’s a crux for me. Which is to say, if I come to believe (1) is false, then that will significantly move me toward thinking that we shouldn’t preserve civility on Less Wrong.
(3) If you disagree with me on (1) and (1) is also a crux for you, then we have a double crux, and that should be where we zoom in. And if not, then you should offer a point where you think I disagree with you and where you are persuadable, to see whether that’s a point where I am persuadable.
Cool. Let’s play.
I notice you make a number of claims, but that of the ones I disagree with, none of them have “crux nature” for me. Which is to say, even if we were to hash out our disagreement such that I come to agree with you on the points, I wouldn’t change my stance.
(I might find it worthwhile to do that hashing out anyway if the points turn out to have crux nature for you. But in the spirit of good faith, I’ll focus on offering you a pathway by which you could convince me.)
But if I dig a bit, I think I see a hint of a possible double crux. You say:
I agree with a steelman version of this. (I don’t think it is literally entirely distinct — but I also doubt you do, and I don’t want to pressure you to defend wording that I read as being intended for emphasis rather than precise description.) However, I imagine we disagree about how to value that. I think you mean to imply “…and that’s bad.” Whereas I would add instead “…and that’s good.”
In a little more detail, I think that civility helps to prevent many more distortions in communication than it causes, in most situations. This is less needed the more technical a field is (whatever that means): in math departments you can just optimize for saying the thing, and if seeming insults come out in the process then that’s mostly okay. But when working out social dynamics (like, say, whether a person who’s proposing to lead a new kind of rationalist house is trustworthy and doing a good thing), I think distorted thinking is nearly guaranteed without civility.
At which point I cease caring about “efficient transmission of information”, basically because I think (a) the information being sent is secretly laced with social subtext that’ll affect future transmissions as well as its own perceived truthiness, and (b) the “efficient” transmission is emotionally harder to receive.
So to be succinct, I claim that:
(1) Civility prevents more distortion in communication than it creates for a wide range of discussions, including this one about Dragon Army.
(2) I am persuadable as per (1). It’s a crux for me. Which is to say, if I come to believe (1) is false, then that will significantly move me toward thinking that we shouldn’t preserve civility on Less Wrong.
(3) If you disagree with me on (1) and (1) is also a crux for you, then we have a double crux, and that should be where we zoom in. And if not, then you should offer a point where you think I disagree with you and where you are persuadable, to see whether that’s a point where I am persuadable.
Your turn!