From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 22:36:31 MDT
From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky [mailto:sentience@pobox.com]
> Robin Hanson wrote:
> > [observations on the evolutinary success of
> > holding untrue beliefs]
>
> That works to the extent that:
>
> 1) Your sole and only goal is to reproduce statistically
> more frequently than your contemporaries, above all
> other considerations including individual survival.
Not true. Consider Robin's example of a salesman who honestly believes
that he's selling a better product. Even if the salesman isn't
reproducing, his belief in his product is being rewarded with greater
monetary rewards.
It seems to me that self-deception, particularly overly optimistic
self-assessment, is useful in any entity where efficiency of the
mental design is an issue, and any entity which is not in 100%
conscious control of its behavior.
Why? Because an entity that can deceive itself can deceive others by
leverage its abilities at communicating things it truly believes. An
entity that cannot deceive itself must invest in additional abilities
to become effective at deceiving others.
Naturally, humans can do both. But it does seem that humans who can
persuade themselves are most effective at persuading others. It also
seems, anecdotally, that optimistic humans are more effective at
motivating themselves, more resilient in the face of overwhelming
odds, and in general more productive.
An irony here is that you, Eliezer, strike me as a rather irrationally
optimistic person[*].
mez
* Lest this be interpreted as an ad hominem, let me state here that I
find a certain degree of irrational optimism a rather endearing trait,
and an extropic one.
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