> Aim for convergence on truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for convergence on truth.
It’s not clear to me what the word “convergence” is doing here. I assume the word means something, because it would be weird if you had used extra words only to produce advice identical to “Aim for truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for truth”. The post talks about how truthseeking leads to convergence among truthseekers, but if that were all there was to it then one could simply seek truth and get convergence for free. Apparently we ought to seek specifically convergence on truth, but what does seeking convergence look like?
I’ve spent a while thinking on it and I can’t come up with any behaviours that would constitute aiming for truth but not aiming for convergence on truth, could you give an example?
I think this wording does need to be changed/updated, since it’s not clear. I’m trying to post-hoc introspect on why “convergence” felt good (i.e. these were not my explicit thoughts at the time) and what’s coming up is:
A different set of actions will come out of me if I’m trying to get both of us to successfully move toward truth, from each of our respective current positions, than if I am solely trying to move toward truth myself, or solely trying to force you to update.
So “aim for convergence on truth”carries with it a connotation of “taking a little bit of responsibility for the pairwise dynamic, rather than treating the conversation as a purely egocentric procedure motivated by my own personal desire to be personally less wrong.”
> Aim for convergence on truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for convergence on truth.
It’s not clear to me what the word “convergence” is doing here. I assume the word means something, because it would be weird if you had used extra words only to produce advice identical to “Aim for truth, and behave as if your interlocutors are also aiming for truth”. The post talks about how truthseeking leads to convergence among truthseekers, but if that were all there was to it then one could simply seek truth and get convergence for free. Apparently we ought to seek specifically convergence on truth, but what does seeking convergence look like?
I’ve spent a while thinking on it and I can’t come up with any behaviours that would constitute aiming for truth but not aiming for convergence on truth, could you give an example?
I think this wording does need to be changed/updated, since it’s not clear. I’m trying to post-hoc introspect on why “convergence” felt good (i.e. these were not my explicit thoughts at the time) and what’s coming up is:
A different set of actions will come out of me if I’m trying to get both of us to successfully move toward truth, from each of our respective current positions, than if I am solely trying to move toward truth myself, or solely trying to force you to update.
So “aim for convergence on truth” carries with it a connotation of “taking a little bit of responsibility for the pairwise dynamic, rather than treating the conversation as a purely egocentric procedure motivated by my own personal desire to be personally less wrong.”