I agree with everything you said (including the grandparent). Some of the examples you named are primarily difficult because of the ugh-field and not because of inferential distance, though.
One of the problems is that it’s strictly more difficult to explain something than to understand it. To understand something you can just go through the literature at your own pace, look up everything you’re not certain about, and so continue studying until all your questions are answered. When you want to explain something you have to understand it but you also have to be able to figure out the right words to bridge the inferential gap, you have to figure out where the other person’s model differs from yours and so on.
So there will always be a set of problems you understand well enough to be confident they’re true but not well enough to explain them to others.
Anthropomorphic global warming is a belief that falls into this category for most of us. It’s easy to follow the arguments and to look at the data and conclude that yes, it’s humans that are the cause of global warming. But to argue for it successfully? Nearly impossible (unless you have studied the subject for years).
Cryonics is also a topic that’s notoriously difficult to discuss. If you can argue for that effectively my hat’s off to you. (Argue for it effectively ⇒ they sign up)
I agree with everything you said (including the grandparent). Some of the examples you named are primarily difficult because of the ugh-field and not because of inferential distance, though.
One of the problems is that it’s strictly more difficult to explain something than to understand it. To understand something you can just go through the literature at your own pace, look up everything you’re not certain about, and so continue studying until all your questions are answered. When you want to explain something you have to understand it but you also have to be able to figure out the right words to bridge the inferential gap, you have to figure out where the other person’s model differs from yours and so on.
So there will always be a set of problems you understand well enough to be confident they’re true but not well enough to explain them to others.
Anthropomorphic global warming is a belief that falls into this category for most of us. It’s easy to follow the arguments and to look at the data and conclude that yes, it’s humans that are the cause of global warming. But to argue for it successfully? Nearly impossible (unless you have studied the subject for years).
Cryonics is also a topic that’s notoriously difficult to discuss. If you can argue for that effectively my hat’s off to you. (Argue for it effectively ⇒ they sign up)