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Hm, never thought of it like that.

I was caught off guard by the change when it was implemented, and was frankly quite annoyed. My suspicions were the same as the author's, that the reasons were likely insincere. But I never made the leap you did to (try and) assess my subconscious biases. Thank you for the insight!

On an other note, 'main' is fewer letters to capture the same idea ad therefore more efficient.




Subconscious bias is the modern day original sin.

It's creepily similar to the indoctrination technique of teaching people they are evil and can only be redeemed by following <belief system of choice>.


James Lindsey hit the nail on the head years ago comparing it to religion.

I think you’re optimistic in your formulation that there is redemption in that system. That or it’s a very useful paraphrase.


Not really, because subconscious bias is actually real.


So is Original Sin. Unless you believe than mankind is naturally depraved, in which case the state of the world makes perfect sense right now and cannot be changed.

To delve into this a little bit more - if mankind is _by nature_ depraved / evil, then there is nothing more to say or do. We are fighting against our nature, trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps out of a morass which we were born into. There is no point in trying, because we are broken. We can only hope that the principle of sufficient reason (a cause must be sufficient to explain its effects) is false and that our AGI children will be able to be born free from our defects and destroy / save us.

IFF mankind is not _by nature_ depraved, then either: * We are not currently depraved (and live in Eden [which seems ... unlikely]) * We are injured (in some way).

The doctrine of Original Sin, looked at from a purely natural perspective, is the declaration that "man is not by nature depraved, but he is suffering from an ancient injury". Which is much more hopeful than any of the other options.


By that definition of original sin, subconscious bias is just a specific kind of ancient injury. So subconscious bias isn't analogous to original sin, it is a form of original sin.

So either subconscious bias is religious and dogmatic like original sin, or subconscious bias is hopeful and not religious like original sin.


If it was significant and of consequence, my suspicion is it wouldn't stay subconscious for long.

Original Sin is just as real to the worldview of millions over centuries as Subconscious Bias is to others.


People need to fear something. In medieval ages it was heresy, 50 years ago it was communism, 20 years ago it was terrorism and today it's racism.




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