[AlexandrB]

> I'd think if you brought those people from the past to today they may discard some of their ideas (though changing your mind is hard).

Possible, but unlikely for any beliefs they hold dear. And thinking that other people stick to crazy beliefs because they are less smart than you is a great way to end up with a lot of crazy beliefs yourself. After all, why would you ever question them? You're too smart to believe something crazy!

"Science progresses one funeral at a time." -- Max Planck

[gonehome]

I don't think people stick to crazy beliefs because they're not as smart as I am - I think sticking to old/comfortable beliefs is a problem in general with how our minds work and something you have to fight against basically all the time, it's the default behavior.

Part of the way of doing that is trying to evaluate what evidence is available and update how you think accordingly. It's when people refuse to do this that it's a problem (or worse when they think they're doing it, but really they're just trying to come up with 'evidence' for what they already believe to be true).

It should be a struggle towards whatever is true - not trying to prove what you already believe to be true.

I think it's sad that so much time and effort is spent spinning in circles when we could make so much more progress if we were collectively able to fix these issues with how we think.