We humans, in contrast, not only use language and logic to consciously and explicitly reason about our concrete world, we also so reason about the abstractions we use to make sense of that world. As we tend to express our high ideals using high abstractions, reasoning that is more explicit, systematic, and that more challenges our more abstract abstractions tends to threaten to undermine our cherished abstract ideals. The Bible tells a story of the Jewish people arriving at the promised land from Egypt after about a year, but then losing their confidence and turning away, wandering the desert for another forty years before returning to try again.
Author: Robin Hanson
Published at: 2025-12-03 23:00:42
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