3 ms·
The problem with Elon's crusade is that he still fundamentally believes that "truth" is something outside of human production, something which is there to be di
by hunglee2 4y ago
The problem with Elon's crusade is that he still fundamentally believes that "truth" is something outside of human production, something which is there to be discovered if only we could assemble enough good people to do it. The uncomfortable reality is truth is merely social consensus, which is usually reached through repetition and reinforcement of the approved narrative, and the application of sufficient social costs to those who hold dissenting views.
- seymourhersh 4y ago[dead]
- fidgewidge 4y agoTruth obviously does exist. If your truth says that touching a 200 kilovolt live power line is healthy and you do it, you will die because the truth is something else. Humans of all stripes agree on millions of true but unpleasant or inconvenient things every single day, successfully. The problems are all around a very narrow and specific set of topics where a contested and highly impactful claim can't be directly established or tested by the vast majority, and thus to determine what is or is not "true" boils down to a trust in institutions problem. Some people say X is true, other people say Y is true, but none of them can actually see the truth directly with their own eyes and thus who you believe boils down to large sets of ambiguous priors.