Realistically, we have to use a huge amount of heuristics and precomputed rules without consciously thinking about the entire data set from which they were created. This is true even when we’re already aware of the data set.
The human mind uses cached thoughts a lot, and fearing cache poisoning isn’t the same as not using a cache at all, because caching is an indispensable optimization technique.
Which leads to the interesting recursive question: how do you generate a rule which tells you when to re-check other rules? It may feel satisfying to question your cached ideas now and then, but e.g. deciding randomly when to do this and when not to may well be worse than the “default” human behavior.
The architecture of the human mind probably already includes mechanisms that act like such a rule, and they are probably nontrivial to override just by deciding to. Do we understand them well enough to design a better when-to-recheck rule, a better compromise between the givens of the human mind and something impractical like a provably-optimal Bayesian belief network?
I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules for when to re-check cached thoughts (and other cached habit patterns), but if I notice that the last time I checked a cached thought was when I was 7 years old I will be sure to check it very* closely.
*I can tell because the associated mental imagery or what I was seeing or doing when last updating the cached thought (like playing on a swing set) gives it away.
Realistically, we have to use a huge amount of heuristics and precomputed rules without consciously thinking about the entire data set from which they were created. This is true even when we’re already aware of the data set.
The human mind uses cached thoughts a lot, and fearing cache poisoning isn’t the same as not using a cache at all, because caching is an indispensable optimization technique.
Which leads to the interesting recursive question: how do you generate a rule which tells you when to re-check other rules? It may feel satisfying to question your cached ideas now and then, but e.g. deciding randomly when to do this and when not to may well be worse than the “default” human behavior.
The architecture of the human mind probably already includes mechanisms that act like such a rule, and they are probably nontrivial to override just by deciding to. Do we understand them well enough to design a better when-to-recheck rule, a better compromise between the givens of the human mind and something impractical like a provably-optimal Bayesian belief network?
I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules for when to re-check cached thoughts (and other cached habit patterns), but if I notice that the last time I checked a cached thought was when I was 7 years old I will be sure to check it very* closely.
*I can tell because the associated mental imagery or what I was seeing or doing when last updating the cached thought (like playing on a swing set) gives it away.