For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

From Is This Predictive Coding? by Scott Alexander.  I am intrigued by the concept and posting just to keep track of it.  Here is Wikipedia's entry.  Alexander:

Predictive coding is a theory of psychology and neuroscience that leans heavily into the idea that expectations shape perception, with significant implications for the study of bias, rationality, and mental illness. I’ve written more about it here, but by far the best introduction is to play around with perceptual illusions. Here are two of the better ones I’ve found in the past few months (h/t the people who tweeted them):

He posts a couple of examples from Twitter.

What. The. Hell. https://t.co/tzUIO4cD4q pic.twitter.com/bIbV8V6J9s

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) June 6, 2021

and

They’re saying the one you’re looking at pic.twitter.com/GNqg6Qhs9T

— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) June 24, 2021

The logical sense of predictive coding is appealing but the field is apparently under-researched and not yet on firm epistemic ground.  I am less interested in the sensory aspect (though that is interesting) as in the epistemic and behavioral elements.  

The argument that we often see what we want to see seems like it is daily demonstrated.  Indeed, it is baked into our culture from the time of Shakespeare's Hamlet at least "For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."