I think this is related to how interfaces are selected for by functionality, not accuracy. Accuracy is one thing that can make them functional sometimes. But not always!
I like Donald Hoffman’s example of computer GUI desktops. Those aren’t meant to reflect the actual state of anything at the hardware level. A given “file” on your “desktop” might be scattered across your hard drive for instance. The point of the desktop is to create a kind of semi-fictional interface that humans can use. It’s not totally disconnected from what’s going on in the computer; otherwise it wouldn’t work. But in many ways it’d get worse as a usable interface if you made it more accurate.
Likewise, motivational inner speech (“I can do it! I can do it!”) isn’t meant to be an epistemically justified conclusion. It’s a way of drumming up resources to try something. Refusing to use it because its literal denotations aren’t justified is a kind of confusion.
Another example is the common thing about fixing posture by imagining a string attached to the top of your head that’s suspended from far up in the sky. Obviously there’s no such string. But somehow visualizing and “feeling” the string and kind of “hanging” from it can often help people rearrange their spine in a helpful way. It’s much harder to give specific instructions about what shifts to make in the spine: that’s just not the natural interface for making the right adjustments.
A maybe stranger example is learning to balance on one foot with your eyes closed. A lot of that is just your body getting used to using the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, and lots of quick micro adjustments, to stay upright. But AFAICT it’s completely irrelevant whether you understand that. You just… try. And you keep trying. And eventually something hidden happens, and you get better at it (probably — some don’t!). The interface there is this magic “trying” thing. More accurate detail about what you’re trying is just noise (AFAIK)!
It’s unclear to me where the boundaries of this effect are. If I don a frame of faith in Christ, does this create a world interface that makes some things available that are harder to access in some other way? How would I tell? If it affects how pleasant life feels to me, and by it how open-hearted I’m able to be with those I love, and those who don’t hold that faith don’t seem to be as free to open their hearts… well, it kind of looks like the faithless are the confused ones, aren’t they? Kind of like a person who won’t use a GUI interface because it’s deceptive.
(I’m not claiming that specifically faith in Christ does this, by the way! I’m giving a hypothetical example. I also think some people in fact do have a subjective experience as though this hypothetical example is real — but that involves a lot of social complexities such as that they’re supposed to experience it as true. So please take it as a purely theoretical example. Or feel free to debate whether it’s accurate of course! But please don’t frame it as though you’re debating with me about its accuracy.)
I think this is related to how interfaces are selected for by functionality, not accuracy. Accuracy is one thing that can make them functional sometimes. But not always!
I like Donald Hoffman’s example of computer GUI desktops. Those aren’t meant to reflect the actual state of anything at the hardware level. A given “file” on your “desktop” might be scattered across your hard drive for instance. The point of the desktop is to create a kind of semi-fictional interface that humans can use. It’s not totally disconnected from what’s going on in the computer; otherwise it wouldn’t work. But in many ways it’d get worse as a usable interface if you made it more accurate.
Likewise, motivational inner speech (“I can do it! I can do it!”) isn’t meant to be an epistemically justified conclusion. It’s a way of drumming up resources to try something. Refusing to use it because its literal denotations aren’t justified is a kind of confusion.
Another example is the common thing about fixing posture by imagining a string attached to the top of your head that’s suspended from far up in the sky. Obviously there’s no such string. But somehow visualizing and “feeling” the string and kind of “hanging” from it can often help people rearrange their spine in a helpful way. It’s much harder to give specific instructions about what shifts to make in the spine: that’s just not the natural interface for making the right adjustments.
A maybe stranger example is learning to balance on one foot with your eyes closed. A lot of that is just your body getting used to using the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, and lots of quick micro adjustments, to stay upright. But AFAICT it’s completely irrelevant whether you understand that. You just… try. And you keep trying. And eventually something hidden happens, and you get better at it (probably — some don’t!). The interface there is this magic “trying” thing. More accurate detail about what you’re trying is just noise (AFAIK)!
It’s unclear to me where the boundaries of this effect are. If I don a frame of faith in Christ, does this create a world interface that makes some things available that are harder to access in some other way? How would I tell? If it affects how pleasant life feels to me, and by it how open-hearted I’m able to be with those I love, and those who don’t hold that faith don’t seem to be as free to open their hearts… well, it kind of looks like the faithless are the confused ones, aren’t they? Kind of like a person who won’t use a GUI interface because it’s deceptive.
(I’m not claiming that specifically faith in Christ does this, by the way! I’m giving a hypothetical example. I also think some people in fact do have a subjective experience as though this hypothetical example is real — but that involves a lot of social complexities such as that they’re supposed to experience it as true. So please take it as a purely theoretical example. Or feel free to debate whether it’s accurate of course! But please don’t frame it as though you’re debating with me about its accuracy.)