Curiosity stopper

Curiosity stopper, or semantic stopsign is an event that convinces a person to stop pursuing the truth in some matter without finding the answer. Often a confusing response that looks like an answer, but actually isn't. Can preserve incorrect beliefs for a long time. A tool of dark arts and important part of any anti-epistemology.

When specific words act as stopsigns, placing a rationalist taboo on them may help. Epistemic hygiene allows to exclude some of the stopsigns raised by partial arguers.

See also

• Curiosity
• Improper belief
• Anti-epistemology
• Futility of chaos

Blog posts

Posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky:

• Semantic Stopsigns
• Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions
• Fake Explanations
• "Science" as Curiosity-Stopper
• Explain/Worship/Ignore?
• The Futility of Emergence