From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Dec 11 2002 - 22:30:59 MST
This topic came up at the most recent Transhuman Atlanta, during a
discussion of whether the Santa Claus legend is mostly bad (teaches kids
to believe in order to get rewarded) or mostly good (learning that Santa
Claus is a big fat lie is a valuable lesson in skepticism). In Germany,
according to Sabine, Santa Claus is more feared than adored - he puts the
bad kids in the sack. This got us to thinking about what kind of legend
Newtonmas should have, and while I've heard of Solar Cause, the Newtonmas
patron proposed at >H ATL was the Fairy of Doubt, who brings presents only
to children who don't believe in him.
It was proposed that someone dress up as the Fairy of Doubt for Newtonmas,
but the reply was that the Fairy of Doubt's existence should be asserted
but never supported by observation.
This year, tell your little children about the Fairy of Doubt, who brings
presents only to those children who don't believe in him; and be sure to
relate the heartwarming story of little Sally, who almost started
believing in the Fairy of Doubt, but was saved from an unhappy Newtonmas
by the Competing Hypothesis.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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