Some of the more “philosophical” posts on Scott Adams’s blog exist to elicit interesting feedback from his commenters, feedback such as: what’s wrong with his ideas, what he ought to know about the topic but doesn’t, original ways of looking at the problem, interesting related topics and so forth. And sometimes he is trying to make a point obliquely; by asking awkward questions or “taking ideas to their illogiocal conclusion” he is trying to point out non-obvious flaws in commonly held assumptions. To take him literally or to jump to conclusions about his actual beliefs based on these posts would be missing the point.
He’s serious when he says he thinks evolution “looks like a blend of science and bullshit” (http://tinyurl.com/39kcsg). But I have recently come to the conclusion that anyone who is both intelligent and creative will believe at least one thing that I find either batty or offensive! It doesn’t mean that one should ignore everything else they say; Isaac Newton believed a lot of weird things, but some of the stuff he wrote was quite insightful.
Oh, and as this is my first post, I’d also like to say that I am really enjoying reading the blog. I’ve been hooked on it since I first discovered it a couple of weeks ago!
If you want to bring your ideas to a wider audience, perhaps you should think about doing a TV show. Maybe you could pitch something to the “Equinox” people at Britain’s Channel 4 - they seem to show more intellectual stuff than the BBC’s “Horizon”.
I wonder if Mr. Yudkowsky could sum up everything he is trying to say on this blog in ten short, snappy proverbs. Kind of like the Ten Commandments, or the lists at the end of the ” . . . for Dummies” books.
On second thoughts, seven plus or minus two might be a better number.
The Gelfin quote is great. I suppose making excuses and rationalising things is a sign of cognitive dissonance and ought to act as a warning that you need to pull onto the side of the road and check your map, before you arrive at the wrong destination.