Many people are hating on this video, but I actually think it's a fascinating display of the two very distinct modes that exist to relate with reality: mimesis vs. first principles thinking. 95% of people operate by mimesis. Truth doesn't matter to them as much as getting along; and their epistemology (how they decide whether something is true) is based on what people around them believe (which is obviously circular, since most of *these* people also operate that way). The remaining 5% — people with Asperger's really — think from first principles about things. This leads them to hold opinions that are sometimes very outside the Overton window, to be extremely disagreeable — basically to be that guy in the meme standing before a mob going "yes, you are all wrong." And the reason they can do this isn't courage as much as social ineptitude — it's not that they're strong enough to fight against the grain, it's that they *don't feel* the grain. They're rude by omission, not commission. Now, my running theory is that this balance — 95% mimesis, 5% first principles, at the expense of social cohesion — is probably finely tuned by nature. Asperger's is almost entirely genetic, and you'd assume that it puts its hosts at such a reproductive disadvantage that it should be rooted out in no time. And yet it persists, and I actually think it's been with us since time immemorial: the hunter gatherer's aspie was probably the shaman — a weird dude whose brand of wisdom earned him a certain respect, but also kept him forever on the fringe of the tribe. I think that balance exists because if we were all aspies, society mostly wouldn't be able to work together (even Peter Thiel fired Elon!). And if we were all normies, civilization would devolve into a mimetic black hole — you can get a feel for what that looks like by looking at university campuses.
Many people are hating on this video, but I actually think it's a fascinating display of the two very distinct modes that exist to relate with reality: mimesis vs. first principles thinking. 95% of people operate by mimesis. Truth doesn't matter to them as much as getting along; and their epistemology (how they decide whether something is true) is based on what people around them believe (which is obviously circular, since most of *these* people also operate that way). The remaining 5% — people with Asperger's really — think from first principles about things. This leads them to hold opinions that are sometimes very outside the Overton window, to be extremely disagreeable — basically to be that guy in the meme standing before a mob going "yes, you are all wrong." And the reason they can do this isn't courage as much as social ineptitude — it's not that they're strong enough to fight against the grain, it's that they *don't feel* the grain. They're rude by omission, not commission. Now, my running theory is that this balance — 95% mimesis, 5% first principles, at the expense of social cohesion — is probably finely tuned by nature. Asperger's is almost entirely genetic, and you'd assume that it puts its hosts at such a reproductive disadvantage that it should be rooted out in no time. And yet it persists, and I actually think it's been with us since time immemorial: the hunter gatherer's aspie was probably the shaman — a weird dude whose brand of wisdom earned him a certain respect, but also kept him forever on the fringe of the tribe. I think that balance exists because if we were all aspies, society mostly wouldn't be able to work together (even Peter Thiel fired Elon!). And if we were all normies, civilization would devolve into a mimetic black hole — you can get a feel for what that looks like by looking at university campuses.
@Altimor Please don't pathologize the truth seekers.
@Altimor Fides et Ratio Science and love are like two wings on which the human spirit soars to consider truth. brookings.edu/books/the-cons…
@Altimor This tracks. I don’t think it’s just Aspies though.
@Altimor I see you're doing the my truth thing right now with all these numbers you pulled out of thin air lmao
@Altimor Plenty of first principles thinkers understand what they're supposed to and allowed to say, sometimes they deem it important enough that they just don't care.
@Altimor @andrewchen Good analysis. Do you have any source about mimesis? This is very interesting to me, I would like to know more about it. Thanks.