{"id":4727,"date":"2012-09-11T14:53:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T18:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2012-09-11T22:33:06","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T02:33:06","slug":"is-sufficiently-compressed-thinking-indistinguishable-from-magical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/09\/is-sufficiently-compressed-thinking-indistinguishable-from-magical-thinking.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Sufficiently Compressed Thinking Indistinguishable from Magical Thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andrew Brown is in The Guardian<\/em> claiming any sufficiently interesting theory of the world is indistinguishable from religion<\/a>. \u00a0There\u2019s a lot to debate there, but do you mind if I put the broader issue aside for a second to come to the defense of\u00a0science!<\/em> \u00a0Brown writes:<\/p>\n

And atheism can be just as theologically incorrect: today\u2019s paper told me that: \u201cour bodies are built and controlled by far fewer genes than scientists had expected<\/a>\u201c. The metaphors of \u201cbuilding\u201d and \u201ccontrolling\u201d have here taken a concrete form that makes them palpably untrue. Genes don\u2019t do either thing. It seems to me that a belief in tiny invisible all-controlling entities is precisely a belief in the supernatural, yet that is the form in which entirely naturalistic genetics is widely understood in our culture. Religion can\u2019t really be about doctrine and heresy either, because these concepts don\u2019t make sense in pre-literate cultures. You can even ask whether the concept of \u201csupernaturalism\u201d makes any sense in most of the world without a developed idea of scientific naturalism, and scientific laws, that would stand for its opposite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whoa, whoa, whoa. \u00a0First of all, the\u00a0conceptual\u00a0errors and simplifications of\u00a0science journalism<\/em> (that linked quote comes from a reporter) are not a guide to the blind spots of\u00a0science<\/em> as an\u00a0epistemology. \u00a0But I also take some issue with the idea that using agent-language is necessarily an error mode in science.<\/p>\n

Science is a model-making endeavor. \u00a0It\u2019s never possible to\u00a0prove<\/em> that your model is in one-to-one correspondence with the World-as-it-is, so you evaluate different theories by seeing how good they are at anticipating data collected from the world.<\/p>\n

(Notice that I used a colloquialism there and let \u2018theories\u2019 take an active verb instead of saying something wordier and more precise like \u201cthere is a high degree of correlation between the outputs of your theory\u2019s algorithm and previously unobserved observations, and it didn\u2019t mean I literally<\/em> believed that theories were immaterial actors or otherwise supernatural).<\/p>\n

Your model may look different at different scales, because the\u00a0most\u00a0<\/em>accurate<\/em>\u00a0model may be more granular than needed. \u00a0We can use a lot of\u00a0Newtonian\u00a0physics for human scale\u00a0predictions, even though we know it\u2019s not\u00a0true<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s true enough for the problem at hand. \u00a0The trouble is, that if you\u2019re making a habit of using an easier way but sloppier way of answering questions<\/a>, you want to make sure you\u2019re also setting aside time to practice recognizing the moments when precision matters enough that you should dust off your more accurate model and get out the instruction manual for all the little levers and bits that go\u00a0boink<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of us, scientists or not, don\u2019t spend enough time auditing our cached thoughts and heuristics, and the one that Brown flagged is a pretty persistent problem. \u00a0I think a better word than \u201csupernaturalism\u201d would be \u201cagent-seeing.\u201d \u00a0(Ok, better in the sense that it\u2019s more accurate; I\u2019m open to catchier substitutions). \u00a0Ascribing purpose or agency to inert matter or abstract concepts doesn\u2019t necessarily lead to belief in the supernatural, though it may produce weird theories of\u00a0consciousness\u00a0or an increased expectation that other intelligent life exists.<\/p>\n

The main problem when people talk about genes\u00a0acting <\/em>or wanting<\/em> isn\u2019t the use of shorthand. \u00a0It\u2019s that once we use the word want<\/em>, we assume genes must want what we want<\/a> since we want the best<\/em> things. \u00a0The map is supposed to reflect the territory, but you have to be careful about which way you\u2019re letting the data flow. \u00a0The existence of fold lines on a map should not cause you to expect very regular divots in the landscape (Bryan Caplan terms this the metaphorical fallacy<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t lose hope! \u00a0Shorthand makes life go a lot more smoothly, and if you take the time to check in on yourself, you can spot and correct for error modes. \u00a0So, if you notice that everything in the world has the same purpose and desires as you<\/a>, that\u2019s a good way to notice you\u2019re slipping into error. \u00a0Pause, take a breath, and repeat to yourself: \u201cCamelot!<\/em> (It\u2019s only a model).\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Brown is in The Guardian claiming any sufficiently interesting theory of the world is indistinguishable from religion. \u00a0There\u2019s a lot to debate there, but do you mind if I put the broader issue aside for a second to come to the defense of\u00a0science! \u00a0Brown writes: And atheism can be just as theologically incorrect: today\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,68],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-epistemologyphilosophy","tag-map-and-territory"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Sufficiently Compressed Thinking Indistinguishable from Magical Thinking?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Andrew Brown is in The Guardian claiming any sufficiently interesting theory of the world is indistinguishable from 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