Interesting post, although I wish “reality-masking” puzzles had been defined better. Most of this post is around disorientation pattern or disabling parts of the epistemic immune system more than anything directly masking reality.
Having a go at pointing at “reality-masking” puzzles:
There was the example of discovering how to cue your students into signalling they understand the content. I think this is about engaging with a reality-masking puzzle that might show up as “how can I avoid my students probing at my flaws while teaching” or “how can I have my students recommend me as a good tutor” or etc.
It’s a puzzle in the sense that it’s an aspect of reality you’re grappling with. It’s reality-masking in that the pressure was away from building true/accurate maps.
Having a go at the analogous thing for “disabling part of the epistemic immune system”: the cluster of things we’re calling an “epistemic immune system” is part of reality and in fact important for people’s stability and thinking, but part of the puzzle of “trying to have people be able to think/be agenty/etc” has tended to have us ignore that part of things.
Rather than, say, instinctively trusting that the “immune response” is telling us something important about reality and the person’s way of thinking/grounding, one might be looking to avoid or disable the response. This feels reality-masking; like not engaging with the data that’s there in a way that moves toward greater understanding and grounding.
Interesting post, although I wish “reality-masking” puzzles had been defined better. Most of this post is around disorientation pattern or disabling parts of the epistemic immune system more than anything directly masking reality.
Also related: Pseudo-rationality
Having a go at pointing at “reality-masking” puzzles:
There was the example of discovering how to cue your students into signalling they understand the content. I think this is about engaging with a reality-masking puzzle that might show up as “how can I avoid my students probing at my flaws while teaching” or “how can I have my students recommend me as a good tutor” or etc.
It’s a puzzle in the sense that it’s an aspect of reality you’re grappling with. It’s reality-masking in that the pressure was away from building true/accurate maps.
Having a go at the analogous thing for “disabling part of the epistemic immune system”: the cluster of things we’re calling an “epistemic immune system” is part of reality and in fact important for people’s stability and thinking, but part of the puzzle of “trying to have people be able to think/be agenty/etc” has tended to have us ignore that part of things.
Rather than, say, instinctively trusting that the “immune response” is telling us something important about reality and the person’s way of thinking/grounding, one might be looking to avoid or disable the response. This feels reality-masking; like not engaging with the data that’s there in a way that moves toward greater understanding and grounding.