Debate scripts

Debate scripts

Prompted by this idea:

It would be incredibly useful to have worked out some “personhood interface” respecting scripts that I could call whenever I noticed a particular problem that was stymying the conversation.

–www.greaterwrong.com/posts/ufn3eQWfLCLhg5m4u/increasing-day-to-day-conversational-rationality

Script 1: During a casual argument, put disagreement on hold

i.e. don't do deep topics "in passing", to protect both participants against idea-inoculation.

“I’m getting the sense that we have fundamentally different perspectives/​understandings of X, and that continuing to casually arguing about it is just going to trick us into thinking we understand each other when we don’t. I suggest we either step up our game and really try to explore each others beliefs carefully, or we postpone this discussion to when we have more attention and time to do so.”

Key points:

  • Acknowledge the gap
  • Acknowledge that this should be approached carefully
  • Create the possibility of continuing with renewed vigour, or for deferring.
  • (For this script to be truly complete, one would need to have mechanisms in place for continuing conversations with people.)

Script 2: Check premises

"I’m worried that I’m not understanding [you/​your position] because I have a different understanding of what it means to [X/​be X]. What does [being X/​Xing] mean for you?"

Script 3. Explore a dependency to lessen inferential distance

"I think that we should pause this argument and talk about this tangent idea for a bit, really focus on it, discuss it, and then come back to this one and see what changes."

  • Make sure the other person understands you intend to return to the main argument and that this isn’t a diversionary tactic.

Script 4. Inform about alarm bells

"I don't want to give the appearance of agreeing because what you said sets off alarm bells somewhere in my head, but I'm not sure why".

Script 5. Ask for clarification while clarifying that you're not doubting them

“I think I might understand your intent, but the words you said confused me. Could you rephrase that?”

More scripts that would be useful to formulate

  • Pointing out a possibly divergent Communication culture between you
  • Having a reset button where you drop whatever the current thread is, take a breath, and both recenter on what your central thesis are.
    • I often realize halfway through a conversation that I’ve ended up arguing for a position that I don’t care about/​support, and it’s very hard to recenter from there in a way that isn’t incredibly jarring to the discussion.
  • Introducing an idea that you think has promise but you’re not totally sure you endorse (in the spirit of “brainstorming”)

"Oh, I am so familiar with this feeling. The inferential distance is like an abyss, and I feel like the rest of humanity is beyond my reach."

This is why I think one of the more useful scripts to have is the one for communicating, “I think that we should pause this argument and talk about this tangent idea for a bit, really focus on it, discuss it, and then come back to this one and see what changes.”

Even though you still bear the burden of trying to explain, you’ve at least created a space where they are giving you new idea thought, as opposed to being focused on the original issue and mostly ignoring your tangent.

Other thoughts relevant to debate

  • How to make good conversation while sure you have the correct answer
  • How to listen

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Created (3 years ago)