It seems to me that narratives are skewed and highly simplified abstractions of (empirical) reality that then are subject to selection pressure, such that the most viral ones (within any subculture) dominate, where virality is often negatively correlated with accuracy. Yet, when hearing narratives from people we like and trust, we humans seem to have deeply ingrained urges to quickly believe them. This gets most apparent when you hear the narratives other subcultures are spreading that affect you or your beliefs negatively. Like, hearing the narratives of AI skeptics & ethicists (say about AI water usage, about AI not being “actually intelligent”, or about all AI doomers secretly trying to inflate stock prices) really drove home a Gellman-Amnesia-style realization for me, how deeply flawed narratives tend to be, and that this is very likely true for the narratives I’m affected by (without even realizing these are narratives!).
Narratives are usually a combination of an overly simplistic conclusion about some part of the world paired with radically filtered evidence. (And I guess this claim in itself is a bit of a narrative about narratives)
I agree with you though that narratives may be required to actually do things in the world and pure empiricism will be insufficient.
It seems to me that narratives are skewed and highly simplified abstractions of (empirical) reality that then are subject to selection pressure, such that the most viral ones (within any subculture) dominate, where virality is often negatively correlated with accuracy. Yet, when hearing narratives from people we like and trust, we humans seem to have deeply ingrained urges to quickly believe them. This gets most apparent when you hear the narratives other subcultures are spreading that affect you or your beliefs negatively. Like, hearing the narratives of AI skeptics & ethicists (say about AI water usage, about AI not being “actually intelligent”, or about all AI doomers secretly trying to inflate stock prices) really drove home a Gellman-Amnesia-style realization for me, how deeply flawed narratives tend to be, and that this is very likely true for the narratives I’m affected by (without even realizing these are narratives!).
Narratives are usually a combination of an overly simplistic conclusion about some part of the world paired with radically filtered evidence. (And I guess this claim in itself is a bit of a narrative about narratives)
I agree with you though that narratives may be required to actually do things in the world and pure empiricism will be insufficient.