The great mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing once remarked, “If  a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent” (Turing, 1947)*.  Many people might be taken aback by Turing’s remark. After all, should we not expect that being infallible and having intelligence go hand in hand? Not necessarily.

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          I believe that a key component to increasing one’s intelligence is the ability to be wrong and then correct oneself. All too often, people get caught up in their own confirmation bias. They assume they are right because they have an emotionally driven belief or they have some other fallacy going on. But there is a way to overcome this. Honest and brutal skepticism of one’s own beliefs—from others and from oneself—is what is needed in this age of information. We simply cannot afford to be careless with our epistemology. We must foster intelligent, skeptical, and evidence based discussion if we have any hope of surviving a world where false information abounds and can actually lead to violence.

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         This goal of The Interlocutor is for it to be a haven for those who are interested in taking an honest look at some of the most important issues in our world. I plan to make headway towards this goal by using a "DDC" model (Discuss, Disseminate, and Create). By discussing the issues we can sharpen our “blade of rationality” so that we may cut deeper to the core issues and thus be better prepared to address the problem. By disseminating knowledge, we can put to use what we have learned through conversation and discussion. Finally, by creating, we can start the process all over again and address new issues in the world.

          Additionally, I am going to try an make use of a concept I recently discovered. It's called steel manning, as opposed to the fallacy of straw manning. When you steel man an argument, you essentially make an honest attempt to see things through the eyes of your opponent and use your new perspective to gain an advantage.

           

            I sincerely hope you enjoy the blog. As always, feel free to comment, share, or talk about this blog on your own blog/facebook/twitter.

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Best,

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*1947, ‘Lecture to the London Mathematical Society on 20 February 1947’, in A. M. Turing's  ACE report of 1946 and other papers, B. E. Carpenter and R. W. Doran (eds.), Cambridge,    

Mass.: MIT Press, 1986; also in Collected Works (Volume 1).