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ENGAGING_WORLD

                                                July 23, 2014


Allow me to propose a principle for
settling an epistemological question:         This is not the same
presume that the most interesting             as "optimism", because
possibility is the correct one.               the "interesting" has
                                              it's ambiguous aspects.
   You may object that this is
   unrealistic, and that one
   should perpetually reserve
   judgement on every issue
   not settled by evidence...

   I will respond that what's really
   unrealistic is to presume that human
   consciousness has an infinite stack--
   the combinatorics quickly explode on           A "poet's choice" now
   reserving judgement on every issue,            and then is no big deal,
   and if you think that's what you're            but how long can you keep
   doing, the odds are good that you're           it up?
   lying to yourself, and you're making
   some assumptions you're unaware of to
   prune the tree of possibilities.

       If you admit to yourself that
       you *need* to prune the tree
       to keep going then what
       heuristic will you use?




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