I think this touches on an important issue, especially in a community of rationalists. After a while, you run the risk of cargo-cult rationalism or, as Eliezer says in the Twelve Virtues, rationalization instead of rationalism. We have to be willing to recognize that reason isn’t an object or a constant state or a property of being, but simply an intermittent amelioration of consciousness that we can encourage.
That said, the decision-making Kaj Sotala followed does seem to be, well, irrational. It might be prudent in a power system to resist an injunction simply for the sake of resisting an injunction, to assert independence and undermine the authority of the injunction-maker, but here in the happy field beyond power and weakness that is abstract or intrapersonal discussion, it seems silly to defy for the sake of defiance. We can recognize and erase irrationalities for ourselves by admitting their place in the human system, but that doesn’t mean they’re in any way “okay”: sometimes it’s… acceptable to be “not-okay”.
I think this touches on an important issue, especially in a community of rationalists. After a while, you run the risk of cargo-cult rationalism or, as Eliezer says in the Twelve Virtues, rationalization instead of rationalism. We have to be willing to recognize that reason isn’t an object or a constant state or a property of being, but simply an intermittent amelioration of consciousness that we can encourage.
That said, the decision-making Kaj Sotala followed does seem to be, well, irrational. It might be prudent in a power system to resist an injunction simply for the sake of resisting an injunction, to assert independence and undermine the authority of the injunction-maker, but here in the happy field beyond power and weakness that is abstract or intrapersonal discussion, it seems silly to defy for the sake of defiance. We can recognize and erase irrationalities for ourselves by admitting their place in the human system, but that doesn’t mean they’re in any way “okay”: sometimes it’s… acceptable to be “not-okay”.