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Confirmation/survivorship bias thrives when paired together with the illusion of free will. If we were talking about a philosophical example of an apple tree i
by Arisaka1 5y ago
Confirmation/survivorship bias thrives when paired together with the illusion of free will.
If we were talking about a philosophical example of an apple tree in a remote closed garden, people would agree that the presence of the apple tree itself is a factor that plays a role to whether you'll eat an apple. No matter how much you can stretch your hand or climb a ladder, if there's no apple tree to climb there's no way you can eat apples no matter how hard you tried.
But the more we increase the complexity (like putting a store that sells apples close to the garden) the more people are willing to believe that it was their own ability that made them eat an apple, and not the access to the tree or the store.
Now increase that complexity even further and the noise will become high enough to make you think that everyone can get the metaphorical apple if they try, which is so dumb that is baffling to me.
I had an argument with a friend over the role things outside of his control played in getting his first job as a self-taught. We almost made this a political argument for absolutely no reason. He felt offended because I was trying to tell him that the country of birth still plays a role on not only how much money you can potentially make but also the ease of access to entry level jobs (unemployment rates are a thing outside of your control).
People would rather romanticize their self-reliance than adjust it by admitting external circumstances as ONLY A FACTOR to their success, to the point where they will feel offended and rather remove you from their life than admit the role of the environment and timing in everything we do.
- asiachick 5y agobut none of them had any choice in how they reacted now did you have a choice in how you reacted since as you pointed out free will is an illusion
- hartator 5y agoThis is just basic nihilism. Nihilism is easily rejected for things that matter. It’s easy to reject the abstracted Apple when you are not hungry. Bur when you are hungry, you are very glad you have access to these apples; no matter what social projections of privilege or not you thought these apple were representing when your belly was full.
- Noumenon72 5y agoI don't see how hunger helps you reject nihilism. I occupy a body that was designed by natural selection to motivate me to eat with increasing urgency and selfishness when necessary; experiencing that emotional reward cycle and suppression of rational thought does not count as evidence that nihilism is wrong.
- shiredude95 5y agoThere's another side to that argument, where we work back from the result of eating an apple. Eating an apple gives us some amount of satisfaction and enjoyment. In the example provided even if there was no apple tree and/or no way to get to the apple tree, the idea that one day we can eat an apple might be something that might in accumulation gives the actor the same kind of enjoyment. From a 3rd party PoV looking at the simulation you might feel bad for the actor because you know there is no apple tree and they are just wasting their time trying to get an apple, but if the actor's reality is based on a hypothetical apple to which they are working towards who are we to deny them that happiness? This scene from the movie inception rings true in this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsYc5tCk1t8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsYc5tCk1t8