Dagon comments on Deciding on our rationality focus - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 22 July 2009 06:27AM

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Comment author: Dagon 22 July 2009 05:48:49PM 1 point [-]

I'm interested in both flavors of discussion, and especially in the relationship between them. It's hard to understand WHY consistent and world-matching epistemic beliefs don't AUTOMATICALLY cause winning instrumental behavior, and I think the difference is vital in figuring out the limits (and how to extend them) of our puny brains.

I'm also leery of too much meta control, especially when it seems to only hide rather than solve the underlying conflicts that are causing discomfort among some participants.

For these reasons, I prefer to avoid official policy and see what gets up-voted. There are interesting and thought-provoking posts on a wider variety of topics than I can predict in advance.

Comment author: Jonii 23 July 2009 07:47:53AM 0 points [-]

It's hard to understand WHY consistent and world-matching epistemic beliefs don't AUTOMATICALLY cause winning instrumental behavior

Knowing the location of each house is necessary to solve the problem of traveling salesman, but the step of solving it is not trivial

Comment author: pjeby 22 July 2009 06:16:30PM 0 points [-]

It's hard to understand WHY consistent and world-matching epistemic beliefs don't AUTOMATICALLY cause winning instrumental behavior

Because beliefs are individually like little machines that operate independently. Just because you have a belief that's true, doesn't mean you don't also have another ten thousand false beliefs you're not even aware of having.