What we want isn’t a lack of factionalism, it’s unity. … You have high trust in this network, and believe the evidence you receive from it by default.
I think one of the ways communities can differ are the local communication norms. Rather than saying something like “all communities have local elders whose word is trusted by the community”, and then trying to figure out who the elders are in various communities, you can try to measure something like “how do people react to the statements of elders, and how does that shape the statements elders make?”. In some communities, criticism of elders is punished, and so they can make more loose or incorrect statements and the community can coordinate more easily (in part because they can coordinate around more things). In other communities, criticism of elders is rewarded, and so they can only make more narrow or precise statements, and the community can’t coordinate as easily (in part because they can coordinate around fewer, perhaps higher quality, things).
It seems to me like there’s a lot of value in looking at specific mechanisms there, and trying to design good ones. Communities where people do more reflexive checking of things they read, more pedantic questions, and so on do mean “less trust” in many ways and do add friction to the project of communication, but that friction does seem asymmetric in an important way.
It sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s a tension between trust and trustworthiness. A trusting community will have an easier time coordinating action, but may make bad decisions due to a lack of critical thinking. By contrast, a critical community will have a hard time coordinating, but when it does succeed, its projects will tend to be more trustworthy.
If this is an accurate interpretation, I agree.
I also think that the problem of factions that I’m describing fits with this. Mistrust in other people’s basic intuitions causes the rise of intellectual factions, each of which has high in-ground trust and consequently low trustworthiness:
Different intuitions → mistrust → assuming contrary evidence is based on a flawed process → factions → uncritical in-group trust.
I think one of the ways communities can differ are the local communication norms. Rather than saying something like “all communities have local elders whose word is trusted by the community”, and then trying to figure out who the elders are in various communities, you can try to measure something like “how do people react to the statements of elders, and how does that shape the statements elders make?”. In some communities, criticism of elders is punished, and so they can make more loose or incorrect statements and the community can coordinate more easily (in part because they can coordinate around more things). In other communities, criticism of elders is rewarded, and so they can only make more narrow or precise statements, and the community can’t coordinate as easily (in part because they can coordinate around fewer, perhaps higher quality, things).
It seems to me like there’s a lot of value in looking at specific mechanisms there, and trying to design good ones. Communities where people do more reflexive checking of things they read, more pedantic questions, and so on do mean “less trust” in many ways and do add friction to the project of communication, but that friction does seem asymmetric in an important way.
It sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s a tension between trust and trustworthiness. A trusting community will have an easier time coordinating action, but may make bad decisions due to a lack of critical thinking. By contrast, a critical community will have a hard time coordinating, but when it does succeed, its projects will tend to be more trustworthy.
If this is an accurate interpretation, I agree.
I also think that the problem of factions that I’m describing fits with this. Mistrust in other people’s basic intuitions causes the rise of intellectual factions, each of which has high in-ground trust and consequently low trustworthiness:
Different intuitions → mistrust → assuming contrary evidence is based on a flawed process → factions → uncritical in-group trust.