timtyler comments on Lie to me? - Less Wrong

-1 Post author: pwno 24 June 2009 09:56PM

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Comment author: timtyler 25 June 2009 10:15:36PM * -2 points [-]

This is a "truth, glorious truth post". And the comments were mostly just nodding. Less Wrong is full of this sort of truth-worshiping. The observation that truth has a price seems trivially-obvious to me, but it seems to me that a number of other people around here don't get it - and don't like it being pointed out to them.

Comment author: Alicorn 25 June 2009 10:21:41PM 4 points [-]

I think talking about it as "a price" may be tripping speculative-fiction-quest-sacrifice-buttons or something. ("Yes, we have the MacGuffin, but at what cost?!") If all you're saying is that truths take up brain space and brain space is both finite and valuable, I guess I can't disagree with that, but I value my brain space mostly because it can hold truths.

Comment author: timtyler comment score below threshold [+] (5 children)

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 June 2009 10:49:53PM * 0 points [-]

That additional beliefs take up space and time to learn is an obvious point, nobody disagrees with that. Because this point is obvious, restating it as an important truth seems silly, and suggesting that other people don't accept it offensive. See Costs of rationality for the links to more interesting points.

Comment author: timtyler 26 June 2009 06:26:44AM -2 points [-]

Uh, the first paragraph of the post does explicity disagree, saying "one can only gain from having true information" - claiming the only exception is due to irrationality.

Comment author: JGWeissman 26 June 2009 06:41:11AM 0 points [-]

That was part of a line of reasoning that was introduced by "I used to think that". Pay more attention to context.

Comment author: timtyler 26 June 2009 05:35:05PM 0 points [-]

You have to read all 5 sentences in that paragraph, to read about the new position as I just described it. The original postion was much more wrong.

Comment author: JGWeissman 26 June 2009 06:29:31PM 0 points [-]

Note the difference between "There is one implicit assumption that makes this line of reason not true in all cases", an actual statement from the article, and the modified version "There is only one implicit assumption that makes this line of reason not true in all cases."

You are critiquing the modified version. It seems to me that you are searching for any unfavorable interpretation so that you can offer contrarian dissent.

Note that people have not been disagreeing with your point about the resource cost of representing true information, but also don't think that this is a problem for the article, and object to the unclear way you have presented your point.

timtyler comments on Lie to me? - Less Wrong

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