Steelmanning is not the same as passing the ideological Turing test.
ITT is successful when your opponent agrees with you, or when your opponent cannot distinguish you from their actual allies.
Steelman is successful if you, or your allies, find something useful in the ideas of your opponent. Whether your opponent approved of the result, or not.
In ITT, your opponent is the judge (of how much it passes). With a steelman, you are the judge (of whether you have extracted something useful). When steelmanning, you cherry-pick the good parts, and discard the rest. When passing an ITT, you need to pass all checks.
For example, an ITT of a religion is… speaking like a true believer. A steelman of religion is e.g. saying that we don’t really know how the universe came to existence, and that there are some social benefits of religion.
Steelmanning is not the same as passing the ideological Turing test.
ITT is successful when your opponent agrees with you, or when your opponent cannot distinguish you from their actual allies.
Steelman is successful if you, or your allies, find something useful in the ideas of your opponent. Whether your opponent approved of the result, or not.
In ITT, your opponent is the judge (of how much it passes). With a steelman, you are the judge (of whether you have extracted something useful). When steelmanning, you cherry-pick the good parts, and discard the rest. When passing an ITT, you need to pass all checks.
For example, an ITT of a religion is… speaking like a true believer. A steelman of religion is e.g. saying that we don’t really know how the universe came to existence, and that there are some social benefits of religion.