I liked this post when I read it. It matched my sense that (e.g.) using “outside view” to refer to Hanson’s phase transition model of agriculture->industry->AI was overstating the strength of the reasoning behind it.
But I’ve found that I’ve continued to use the terms “inside view” and “outside view” to refer to the broad categories sketched out in the two Big Lists O’ Things. Both in my head and when speaking. (Or I’ll use variants like “outside viewish” or similar.)
I think there is a meaningful distinction here: the reasoning moves on the “Outside” list involve looking at patterns, getting a sense of the general shape of things, thinking evidentially; the reasoning moves on the “Inside” list involve looking at mechanisms, relying on very specific claims/pictures of how things work, thinking causally. “Outside” and “Inside” actually seem like pretty apt labels for this distinction. And tracking this distinction can be helpful for keeping track of what an argument is and isn’t trying to do.
For me, the distinction doesn’t carry the implication that one is good and the other is not, or that the “outside” category is Backed By Science, or that an outside-style line of thinking represents the one Outside View on a question, or that categorizing an argument as inside or outside is all that precise a characterization of what it’s based on.
I liked this post when I read it. It matched my sense that (e.g.) using “outside view” to refer to Hanson’s phase transition model of agriculture->industry->AI was overstating the strength of the reasoning behind it.
But I’ve found that I’ve continued to use the terms “inside view” and “outside view” to refer to the broad categories sketched out in the two Big Lists O’ Things. Both in my head and when speaking. (Or I’ll use variants like “outside viewish” or similar.)
I think there is a meaningful distinction here: the reasoning moves on the “Outside” list involve looking at patterns, getting a sense of the general shape of things, thinking evidentially; the reasoning moves on the “Inside” list involve looking at mechanisms, relying on very specific claims/pictures of how things work, thinking causally. “Outside” and “Inside” actually seem like pretty apt labels for this distinction. And tracking this distinction can be helpful for keeping track of what an argument is and isn’t trying to do.
For me, the distinction doesn’t carry the implication that one is good and the other is not, or that the “outside” category is Backed By Science, or that an outside-style line of thinking represents the one Outside View on a question, or that categorizing an argument as inside or outside is all that precise a characterization of what it’s based on.