Scott Aaronson's "On Self-Delusion and Bounded Rationality"

cousin_it

Poignant short story about truth-seeking that I just found. Quote:

"No," interjected an internal voice. "You need to prove that your dad will appear by a direct argument from the length of your nails, one that does not invoke your subsisting in a dream state as an intermediate step."

"Nonsense," retorted another voice. "That we find ourselves in a dream state was never assumed; rather, it follows so straightforwardly from the long-nail counterfactual that the derivation could be done, I think, even in an extremely weak system of inference."

The full thing reads like a flash tour of OB/LW, except it was written in 2001.

Poignant short story about truth-seeking that I just found. Quote:

"No," interjected an internal voice. "You need to prove that your dad will appear by a direct argument from the length of your nails, one that does not invoke your subsisting in a dream state as an intermediate step."

"Nonsense," retorted another voice. "That we find ourselves in a dream state was never assumed; rather, it follows so straightforwardly from the long-nail counterfactual that the derivation could be done, I think, even in an extremely weak system of inference."

The full thing reads like a flash tour of OB/LW, except it was written in 2001.

Hedonically happier, huh? A Roissy quote seems appropriate:

Happiness is not granted from on high nor is it a wispy feeling that randomly alights on your mood. Happiness is constructed. It is the direct result of actions taken that further your genes’ goals of survival and reproduction.

I would've amended it to say "likely to have furthered your genes' goals in the ancestral environment", but the original formulation fits Aaronson's story like a glove.

Happiness is constructed. It is the direct result of actions taken that further your genes’ goals of survival and reproduction.

Blatantly obvious counterexamples include forced reproduction and rape. Less blatantly obvious counterexamples include masturbation and bacon double-cheeseburgers, though these don't apply to your amended version. The fact that we have the capacity to experience hedonic pleasure because it was adaptive does not mean we experience hedonic pleasure as a direct result of acting to increase our inclusive genetic fitness.

It may very ... (read more)

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Scott Aaronson's "On Self-Delusion and Bounded Rationality"

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Scott Aaronson's "On Self-Delusion and Bounded Rationality"

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