X-Message-Number: 19850 Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 07:50:36 -0700 Subject: Explain the rule change to people (was why do we hold certain beliefs?) References: <> From: (Tim Freeman) From: "davepizer" <> >In the past, holding beliefs that feel good had to have a survival >benefit. If it felt good to play where the tigers live, you probably >did not pass on that tendency to your offspring. If it felt good to >play where it was safer, you probably lived longer. > >... > >There probably also was a survival benefit in being religious in the >past. If others in your tribe felt you were religions (as they were), >they probably would trust you more and help you in times of need as >you would do the same for them, and they knew it. First response: that's Hanson's "beliefs as clothes" idea, which is worth a read. The URL is http://hanson.gmu.edu/belieflikeclothes.html. One can identify one's in-group and out-group by their beliefs, so if the belief makes no practical difference, there's a benefit to professing the same beliefs as one's in-group and not thinking for oneself. The easiest way to profess a belief is to actually believe it. Second response: There's another survival benefit to being religious in the past, specifically that it stops people from wasting resources frantically trying to do useless things to avoid death from aging at a time when there wasn't anything useful to do. There are arguably things to do now, so the situation is different. This is the "terror management" idea; I just found a URL with plausible content at http://www.geocities.com/zone_omega/terrormanagement.htm. Third response: We (as a species) used to live in a world where the driving force was biological evolution, and starting now (plus or minus a few decades) we're living in a world where the driving force is technology. When the old rules applied, beliefs about an afterlife had no practical consequences, because everybody died anyway on about the same schedule. Now that the new rules apply, beliefs about an afterlife now make a practical difference, since belief in an afterlife undermines the motivation to use technology available now to extend your life. It is interesting to make a list of important differences between consequences of the old rules and consequences of the new rules. >OK, even if this is true, so what? How might we use this insight to >help the cryonics movement? Explain to people that the rules are changing. Tell them what the old rules are, what the new rules are, and why the change is happening. The old rules determine their present beliefs, but they're moving into a regime where the new rules apply. If they hear a good story about how the old rules cause a belief and how the belief is dysfunctional now that the new rules are coming into effect, that might help them change the belief. I have had fantasies about setting up public speaking sessions explaining the old and new rules to random strangers to see how they respond, but I haven't got to it yet. If anyone is enthusiastic about this and actually willing to give a talk, let me know and I'll give you what I have so far. -- Tim Freeman GPG public key fingerprint ECDF 46F8 3B80 BB9E 575D 7180 76DF FE00 34B1 5C78 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19850