High Entropy Thinking

Julia Galef once introduced Tyler Cowen on her show Rationally Thinking as a "High-entropy thinker", which she defined as someone for whom it's very hard to guess any one of his positions if you were given his stance on something else.

I'm not sure how apt the term is, but it sounds fun and it seems to be capturing something that we need more of these days. If I know one or two things about you, say your gender and where you mostly like to read the news, I could guess with reasonable fidelity your position on Alberta's budget cuts, safe injection sites, and Canadian immigration law, plus what alcohol you're most likely to drink, which sports you watch, if any, how often you shave, and where.

Can I actually guess those things, maybe not, but we're led to think I can because we've built up identities for people to fit into, and there are fairly strict social sanctions if people leave those identities. I know that I personally hold opinions on the same issue that would make both sides bridle in disgust. That, or many more people agree with me than I think, and no one is speaking up.

So new category of blog post, Jasper's high entropy thoughts. No example today (because I gotta start making them shorter), but they'll come in hot and heavy. In the meantime, think of your own and gather some pride about them.