[rwallace]

> even though humans are basically black boxes we can ask them questions in order to find out how they came to a particular conclusion. (How reliable the answers to these questions are is of course a different matter.)

You punctuate the second sentence as though it were of secondary importance. But in many cases, we have little ability to figure out how we came to a conclusion, while being much better at fabricating plausible and politically acceptable answers. I put it to you that having questions answered with plausible fabrications, is actually a significantly worse situation than not yet being able to ask the questions at all. At least in the latter situation, we know what we need to be working on.

[daoxid]

> But in many cases, we have little ability to figure out how we came to a conclusion, while being much better at fabricating plausible and politically acceptable answers.

Hmm, too me it feels like I can explain the reasons why I came to a conclusion in many (but certainly not all) cases. You "just" need to clearly identify your feelings and emotions and separate them from your rational arguments.

Anyway, these are our own shortcomings and of course don't have to be adopted by any artificially built black-box model.