Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Complexity of Value ≠ Complexity of Outcome - Less Wrong
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Disagreeing positions don't add up just because they share a feature. On the contrary, If people offer lots of different contradictory reasons for a conclusion (even if each individual has consistent beliefs) it is a sign that they are rationalizing their position.
If 2/3's of experts support proposition G , 1/3 because of reason A while rejecting B, and 1/3 because of reason B while rejecting A, and the remaining 1/3 reject A and B; then the majority Reject A, and the majority Reject B. G should not be treated as a reasonable majority view.
This should be clear if A is the koran and B is the bible.
If we're going to add up expert views, we need to add up what experts consider important about a question, not features of their conclusions.
You shouldn't add up two experts if they would consider each other's arguments irrational. That's ignoring their expertise.
I know it might seem difficult to expand this into a top-level post, but if you just want to post it verbatim, I'd say go for it.
Yes James, I'd also appreciate that. Maybe we should encourage more short top-level posts and comment upgrades to posts. I think that would be great if we could develop a good procedure.