Evidence receipt / uncertainty
Published · transcript-backedSteven Pinker: uncertainty
2 Nov 2016 Conversations with Tyler Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence (Live at Mason)
“I don’t know. My optimism doesn’t consist of prophecy in that sense. That is, my optimism consists of looking at what has happened and noting that, first of all, the pessimistic view is factually incorrect.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Steven Pinker
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- uncertainty
- Recorded
- 2 Nov 2016
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…Let me then work back from that and ask you about your optimism about peace. Is it then your belief it will never be that cheap to blow things up? I don’t know. My optimism doesn’t consist of prophecy in that sense. That is, my optimism consists of looking at what has happened and noting that, first of all, the pessimistic view is factually incorrect. Namely, people believe that we’re living in unusually violent times and we’re not. How to project that into the future is a separate set of questions. There are many unknowns that I’m not arrogant enough to know the answer to. It’s something that we could debate. We could explore them. I am not an optimist in the sense of saying, “Well, let’s just extrapolate the curves in the future without asking questions like that.” Maybe you could at least try to talk me out of my pessimism. [laughter]…
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