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Our beliefs constitute a huge part of the knowledge of the entire world. We have beliefs about things, about culture, about the past, and about the near future. We have beliefs about other people, and we assume that they have beliefs as well. We use beliefs to predict, to describe, to set-up, to gaming system, to entertain. Some of our beliefs we call ideas, and we are extraordinarily creative at creating them. Ideas of quantum technicians, advancement, and relativity are illustrations. But so are ideas about astrology, alien abduction, guardian angels, and reincarnation. All are products (with differing degrees of credibility) of fertile imagination trying to find explanations for experienced phenomena. In this book, Nils Nilsson examines beliefs: what they do for all of us, how we come to carry them, and how to evaluate them. We should evaluate our beliefs carefully, Nilsson highlights, because they influence so quite a few actions and decisions. Some of our beliefs tend to be strongly presented than others, but all is highly recommended tentative and changeable. Nilsson demonstrates beliefs can be quantified by likelihood, and he explains networks of beliefs where the probabilities of some beliefs affect the possibilities of others. He argues that we can evaluate our beliefs by adapting a few of the routines of the technological method and by talking to expert point of view. And he warns us about "belief traps" - holding on to beliefs that wouldn't make it through critical evaluation. The ultimate way to escape idea traps, he creates, is to expose our beliefs to the reasoned criticism of others.
