[extropy-chat] Rational thinking was Movie review- (2)

[Keith Henson]

At 05:46 AM 11/28/2006 -0500, Robert wrote:

snip

>I guess I should have put an emphasis on *rational* thought.  Thoughts in 
>and of themselves are relatively useless other than from the fact that 
>they are the substrate that yields those which are ultimately 
>valuable.  Thoughts in general are like a gene pool.  Applying the 
>selection criteria "this is a good thought because everyone else believes 
>it is a good thought" generally sucks.  Applying the selection criteria 
>"this is a good thought because it make logical sense and reality keeps 
>demonstrating over and over and over again that it makes sense" is IMO a 
>better approach.

Like everyone on this list, I value rational thoughts.  But it is obvious 
this is a minority viewpoint for the population in general.

Why?

Can anyone answer this from an evolutionary psychology point of view?

>I wouldn't give you the time of day for a useless thought.  Aaahhh, but 
>for those that are rational *and* useful, those I'd be willing to pay cold 
>hard cash for.

Heh.  What would the rational thought that explained irrational thinking be 
worth?

Keith Henson