Getting High on Truth

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404 : Hypocrisy not found.

405: try harder.

 

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Right. I think getting "high" with this feedback loop is the way to go, because it's a noble form of reinforcement. At the same time, we shouldn't assume (whether theist or atheists), caught up on outdated postenlightenment perceptions of human behavior (reason divorced from emotion, emotion as a last resort), that it's "just" about truth.

I am having a hard time distinguishing being a chemical system that self rewards for distinguishing truth and simply being interested in truth.

What is the fundamental difference there?

Why would motivations be cheapened in any way because they are part of how your brain works?

 

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I am having a hard time distinguishing being a chemical system that self rewards for distinguishing truth and simply being interested in truth.

What is the fundamental difference there?

Why would motivations be cheapened in any way because they are part of how your brain works?

The fundamental difference is between reasonable people like you who realize it's never "just" about truth, and those caught up with the pale ghost of the Enlightenment who think truth and emotion are two entirely different things.

 

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The fundamental difference is between reasonable people like you who realize it's never "just" about truth, and those caught up with the pale ghost of the Enlightenment who think truth and emotion are two entirely different things.

It's a bit of the snake eating it's tail there, because bias generating emotion is generally something you want to eliminate when seeking truth.

An emotional/chemical attachment to the truth doesn't seem to hurt in this case though because it would behoove you to reduce your other emotional conflicts to attain it.

 

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It's a bit of the snake eating it's tail there, because bias generating emotion is generally something you want to eliminate when seeking truth.

An emotional/chemical attachment to the truth doesn't seem to hurt in this case though because it would behoove you to reduce your other emotional conflicts to attain it.

Well, true point. The thing isn't with truth per se, but learning, and you can easily learn misinformation and get the same neurochemical charge.

So it's not a question of truth, but allowing the inexorable reinforcement of dopamine to drive learning (whether true or false), and also having enough awareness of this reinforcement to stand back and consider things with a degree of doubt. Skepticism, from neurochemical-behavioral perspective, is really about doing stuff that's punishing: if you hold in suspension the stuff that you just learned because you're uncertain if it is true just because you learned it, you're pushing against this neurochemical reward.

Of course, people can go too far neurochemically-behaviorally with skepticism too: when skepticism is valued too highly, a person can easily become selective with what he is skeptical towards or, much worse I think, has a standard of skepticism that's so high and rewards him so much that he doesn't really believe anything, or at least anything of value.

 

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Well, true point. The thing isn't with truth per se, but learning, and you can easily learn misinformation and get the same neurochemical charge.

So it's not a question of truth, but allowing the inexorable reinforcement of dopamine to drive learning (whether true or false), but having enough awareness of this reinforcement to stand back and consider things with a degree of doubt. Skepticism, from neurochemical-behavioral perspective, is really about doing stuff that's punishing: if you hold in suspension the stuff that you just learned because you're uncertain if it is true just because you learned it, you're pushing against this neurochemical reward.

On the value of skepticism, I think we agree.

I highly recommend proper quality control in ones thinking.

Your focus seems to neglect that you can get the same dopamine kicks from showing ideas to be false though.

Some people are also more prone to be comfortable with ambiguity.

Of course, people can go too far neurochemically-behaviorally with skepticism too: when skepticism is valued too highly, a person can easily become selective with what he is skeptical towards or, much worse I think, has a standard of skepticism that's so high and rewards him so much that he doesn't really believe anything, or at least anything of value.

Values are decided by you, and they too have dopamine kicks.

At some point though, you either have to go with the person being the thing in the system calling the shots or the chemicals, and I am not a proponent of biological determinism of this sort.

 

[Paradoxum]

Bill Hicks said marijuana shouldn't just be legal, it should be required by law.

That way when you see some dude totally going nuts because he's late to work, knock knock knock, "oh high officer", "smoke this, it's the law."

Nothing could possibly go wrong.