RI, it shouldn’t literally be Bayes-structure because Bayes-structure is about inference is about mind. I have certainly considered the possibility that what-if is all there is; but it’s got some problems. Just because what-if is something that humans find deductively compelling does not explain how or why it exists Platonically—to suppose that it is necessary just because you can’t find yourself not believing it, hardly unravels the mystery. And much worse, it doesn’t explain why we find ourselves in a low-entropy universe rather than a high-entropy one (why our memories are so highly ordered).
Consequentialist, I just had a horrifying vision of a rationalist cult where the cultists are constantly playing pranks on the Master out of a sincere sense of duty.
I worry a bit less about being a cult leader since I noticed that Paul Graham also has a small coterie following him around accusing him of being a cult leader, and he’s not even trying to save the world. In any case, I’ve delivered such warnings as I have to offer on both the nature of cultish thinking, and the traps that await those who are terrified of “being in a cult”; that’s around as much as I can do.
RI, it shouldn’t literally be Bayes-structure because Bayes-structure is about inference is about mind. I have certainly considered the possibility that what-if is all there is; but it’s got some problems. Just because what-if is something that humans find deductively compelling does not explain how or why it exists Platonically—to suppose that it is necessary just because you can’t find yourself not believing it, hardly unravels the mystery. And much worse, it doesn’t explain why we find ourselves in a low-entropy universe rather than a high-entropy one (why our memories are so highly ordered).
Consequentialist, I just had a horrifying vision of a rationalist cult where the cultists are constantly playing pranks on the Master out of a sincere sense of duty.
I worry a bit less about being a cult leader since I noticed that Paul Graham also has a small coterie following him around accusing him of being a cult leader, and he’s not even trying to save the world. In any case, I’ve delivered such warnings as I have to offer on both the nature of cultish thinking, and the traps that await those who are terrified of “being in a cult”; that’s around as much as I can do.