ciphergoth comments on "Outside View!" as Conversation-Halter - Less Wrong

49 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 February 2010 05:53AM

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Comment author: ciphergoth 24 February 2010 12:07:37PM 6 points [-]

This is an excellent post, thank you.

An earlier comment of yours pointed out that one compensates for overconfidence not by adjusting ones probability towards 50%, but by adjusting it towards the probability that a broader reference class would give. In this instance, the game of reference class tennis seems harder to avoid.

Comment author: arundelo 24 February 2010 12:33:33PM 2 points [-]

My introduction to that idea was RobinZ's "The Prediction Hierarchy".

Comment author: RobinZ 24 February 2010 01:44:40PM 2 points [-]

Speaking of that post: It didn't occur to me when I was replying to your comment there, but if you're arguing about reference classes, you're arguing about the term in your equation representing ignorance.

I think that is very nearly the canonical case for dropping the argument until better data comes in.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 February 2010 06:29:06PM *  0 points [-]

Agreed.

Comment author: komponisto 24 February 2010 06:42:10PM 3 points [-]

So what do we do about it?