Vladimir_Nesov comments on Forcing Anthropics: Boltzmann Brains - Less Wrong

17 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 07 September 2009 07:02PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 07 September 2009 08:41:50PM 3 points [-]

The problem is that if you don't update on the proportions of sentients who have your particular experience, then there are much simpler hypotheses than our current physical model which would generate and "explain" your experiences, namely, "Every experience happens within the dust."

To put it another way, the dust hypothesis is extremely simple and explains why this experience exists. It just doesn't explain why an ordered experience instead of a disordered one, when ordered experiences are such a tiny fraction of all experiences. If you think the latter is a non-consideration then you should just go with the simplest explanation.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 07 September 2009 08:52:25PM 2 points [-]

Traditional explanations are for updating; this is probably a relevant tension. If you don't update, you can't explain in the sense of updating. The notion of explanation itself has to be revised in this light.