Question regarding How To Discover What's True

[Forrest Adkins]

Leo, Im having some problems with the notion of radical open mindedness and the space kangaroo example. 

Dont you fail to take into account that our life on earth is limited? So how can we hold space kangaroos, reptilians and flying spaghetti monsters and all other stuff you can come up with the same probability as fields like spirituality and science. I will be off 5 years investigating space kangaroos, 5 years researching flying spaghetti monsters and then maybe 5-10 more crazy conspiracy theories and my life is over.

When you pursued spirituality and stuff like psychedelics werent you biased yourself about what the answer might be or why would you dive so deep into exactly these topic? Shouldnt you have hold it on equal grounds with the theory that the earth is a flat surface balancing on a turtle in space and therefore dedicate the same amount of time to them?

I mean we are taking only one way through this maze anyway and not all of them, shouldnt we then make some educated guesses?

Edited October 28, 2019 by Forrest Adkins

[Synchronicity]

There’s nothing wrong with skepticism and having opinions. Just recognize how limited the knowledge that you gain from direct experience is. For example, you’ve most likely read about chromosomes in a science textbook, but have you ever seen them for yourself? How do you know that what you read is true until you’ve seen it? You can say you trust what you’ve read - and that’s perfectly fine - but do you truly know it to be true? This is what radical open-mindedness feels like. It’s not about changing your beliefs. It’s about questioning them. 

[oMarcos]

Chaos

[Anton Rogachevski]

You shouldn't take things as literally. It's a thought experiment that's meant to show you the true implications of open mindedness, that doesn't mean to go at it blindly. Use some intuition, some common sense, some belief. 

[Leo Gura]

In practice you will have to make educated guesses as to where to look.

But what you absolutely must understand is that your guesses are biased, circular, and often wrong.

You have to be willing to admit your wrongness, bias, and circularity to yourself.