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.

The main character seems convinced that the difficulty she experiences... is due to her inability... but it's not.

Who said that the characters in good stories must never be mistaken?

Sure, but this isn't just a story, it's a story that tries to make a point about the negative consequences of rationality for some humans in the real world. Her belief isn't merely her belief, it's also a step in an argument.

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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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