“The Uncertainty That Matters Isn’t Fundamental” by jimmy

About this episode

The episode discusses the nature of truth and its relationship with fundamental uncertainty, emphasizing that truth is grounded in our needs and goals rather than being absolute.

I'm on board with a lot of Fundamental Uncertainty. Even some of the stuff that initially feels like a disagreement turns out not to be so. For example, in chapter 8, Gordon writes: Over the course of the previous chapters, I've made the case that truth is fundamentally uncertain. It's not, as many believe, something fixed and eternal, nor is it a matter of pure opinion. Instead, the relative truth we know is grounded, not by absolute truth alone, but by our need for accurate world models to achieve the goals we care about. My first thoughts upon reading this kind of thing are along the lines of "Wtf does it mean for "truth" to be "eternal"? Could you taboo that and give me an example of what you'd use it for?" -- which is exactly turning Gordon's take on truth in on itself, so point taken. Truth is grounded in care, and fundamentally uncertain. I'm with ya here. True enough. It is because of this agreement that I find chapter 8: "Why does fundamental uncertainty matter?" to be the chapter that matters. My answer, however, is quite different: It does not, and it can not. [...] The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: June…

People in this episode

Host: jimmy

Topics covered

• fundamental uncertainty
• truth
• world models
• goals
• philosophy

Keywords

• uncertainty
• truth
• philosophy
• world models
• goals

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