Behavior is better explained as strategy than as error, if the behaviors add up to push the world in some direction (along a dimension that’s “distant” from the behavior, like how “make a box with food appear at my door” is “distant” from “wiggle my fingers on my keyboard”). If a pattern of correlated error is the sort of pattern that doesn’t easily push the world in a direction, then that pattern might be evidence against intent. For example, the conjunction fallacy will produce a pattern of wrong probability estimates with a distinct character, but it seems unlikely to push the world in some specific direction (beyond whatever happens when you have incoherent probabilities). (Maybe this argument is fuzzy on the edges, like if someone keeps trying to show you information and you keep ignoring it, you’re sort of “pushing the world in a direction” when compared to what’s “supposed to happen”, i.e. that you update; which suggests intent, although it’s “reactive” rather than “proactive”, whatever that means. I at least claim that your argument is too general, proves too much, and would be more clear if it were narrower.)
The effective direction the epistemic modesty / argument from authority bias pushes things, is away from shared narrative as something that dynamically adjusts to new information, and towards shared narrative as a way to identify and coordinate who’s receiving instructions from whom.
People frequently make “mistakes” as a form of submission, and it shouldn’t be surprising that other types of systematic error function as a means of domination, i.e. of submission enforcement.
Behavior is better explained as strategy than as error, if the behaviors add up to push the world in some direction (along a dimension that’s “distant” from the behavior, like how “make a box with food appear at my door” is “distant” from “wiggle my fingers on my keyboard”). If a pattern of correlated error is the sort of pattern that doesn’t easily push the world in a direction, then that pattern might be evidence against intent. For example, the conjunction fallacy will produce a pattern of wrong probability estimates with a distinct character, but it seems unlikely to push the world in some specific direction (beyond whatever happens when you have incoherent probabilities). (Maybe this argument is fuzzy on the edges, like if someone keeps trying to show you information and you keep ignoring it, you’re sort of “pushing the world in a direction” when compared to what’s “supposed to happen”, i.e. that you update; which suggests intent, although it’s “reactive” rather than “proactive”, whatever that means. I at least claim that your argument is too general, proves too much, and would be more clear if it were narrower.)
The effective direction the epistemic modesty / argument from authority bias pushes things, is away from shared narrative as something that dynamically adjusts to new information, and towards shared narrative as a way to identify and coordinate who’s receiving instructions from whom.
People frequently make “mistakes” as a form of submission, and it shouldn’t be surprising that other types of systematic error function as a means of domination, i.e. of submission enforcement.
(I indeed find this a more clear+compelling argument and appreciate you trying to make this known.)