Yeah, but come on, losing credibility in the eyes of the masses is like the easiest thing in the world. Find a taboo, then break it. Losing credibility in the eyes of the wise, though, is impossible. Some people will know I’m a good rationalist no matter how many shenanigans I pull—I’d have to start breaking laws or something to make them think I’d finally gone full schizo. I guess I could just claim to be God, but it’s so hard not to be meta, the relevant people would see through my act quickly. The only choice is to avoid them, and move into the forest for good.
Losing credibility in the eyes of the wise, though, is impossible.
Not so. Be wrong on stuff that matters when you clearly had enough evidence available to reach the correct decision (and they previously would have expected you to be correct). If that doesn’t cause you to lose credibility in their eyes then I reject either your definition of “credibility” or “wise”.
I guess I could just claim to be God
It would be sufficient to claim that there is a god (and it is this particular God) despite the information you had available. See above.
Yeah, but come on, losing credibility in the eyes of the masses is like the easiest thing in the world. Find a taboo, then break it. Losing credibility in the eyes of the wise, though, is impossible. Some people will know I’m a good rationalist no matter how many shenanigans I pull—I’d have to start breaking laws or something to make them think I’d finally gone full schizo. I guess I could just claim to be God, but it’s so hard not to be meta, the relevant people would see through my act quickly. The only choice is to avoid them, and move into the forest for good.
Not so. Be wrong on stuff that matters when you clearly had enough evidence available to reach the correct decision (and they previously would have expected you to be correct). If that doesn’t cause you to lose credibility in their eyes then I reject either your definition of “credibility” or “wise”.
It would be sufficient to claim that there is a god (and it is this particular God) despite the information you had available. See above.
You’d be surprised. Many people I know think this fact is true, some think it should be obvious. And these are wise people.