timtyler comments on You cannot be mistaken about (not) wanting to wirehead - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 26 January 2010 12:06PM

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Comment author: timtyler 26 January 2010 09:21:42PM *  0 points [-]

How about if X is a set of assertions that logical tautologies are true:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(logic)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology(logic)#Definitionand_examples

An example along similar lines to this post would be: you can't be wrong about thinking you are thinking about X - if you are thinking about X.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 26 January 2010 09:37:29PM 7 points [-]
Comment author: wedrifid 28 January 2010 02:43:01AM *  3 points [-]

Now that is a overconfidence/independent statements anecdote I'll remember. The '7 is prime probability 1' part too.

Comment author: timtyler 26 January 2010 09:45:24PM 0 points [-]

Nah, these are not "independent" statements, they are all much the same:

They are "I want X" statements.

Comment author: Jack 26 January 2010 10:02:48PM *  1 point [-]

P v -p is disputed, so someone is wrong there. Also, if you have ever done a 10+ line proof or 10+ place truth table you know it is trivially (pun intended) easy to get those wrong.

I think the concept of a thought and what it is for a thought to be about something needs to be refined before we can say more about the second example. To begin with, if I see a dragonfly and mistake it for a fairy and then start to think about the fairy I saw, it isn't clear that I really am thinking about a fairy.