Steelman—the hypothetical scenario is incongruous with their current world model, so it being true would require extreme changes in their world model leading to a very weird world which they might not want to live in.
E.g. How would the brain and memories function under immortality?
This may also mean that the question is underspecified and the respondent might want to seek further clarification, but the website just doesn’t allow this.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening. The research on the Flynn Effect, and the current reversal, show that it is primarily driven by changes in the ability to reason hypothetically and to understand what an abstraction is.
There appear to be people who cannot reason hypothetically.
Alternate steelman—they’re worried that you’re intending to misleadingly quote their answer in a different context, and have rigged the question to get the quote you want.
Steelman—the hypothetical scenario is incongruous with their current world model, so it being true would require extreme changes in their world model leading to a very weird world which they might not want to live in.
E.g. How would the brain and memories function under immortality?
This may also mean that the question is underspecified and the respondent might want to seek further clarification, but the website just doesn’t allow this.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening. The research on the Flynn Effect, and the current reversal, show that it is primarily driven by changes in the ability to reason hypothetically and to understand what an abstraction is.
There appear to be people who cannot reason hypothetically.
Alternate steelman—they’re worried that you’re intending to misleadingly quote their answer in a different context, and have rigged the question to get the quote you want.