PhilGoetz comments on An empirical test of anthropic principle / great filter reasoning - Less Wrong

8 Post author: James_Miller 24 March 2010 06:44PM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 25 March 2010 04:27:58PM *  0 points [-]

"Out of all attempts at significant technological gain in a civilization, few will succeed. We're a civilization. Therefore, ours probably won't advance."

You use anthropic reasoning to get the claim "few will succeed", which is a conclusion, not a premise.

Comment author: SilasBarta 25 March 2010 04:32:00PM -1 points [-]

"Few will succeed" is an observation, not a premise, though perhaps I should have said, "Few have been observed to succeed".

What is unjustified is the conclusion that ours will not have some success that makes up for the all the other failures, which is why I think Katja_Grace's reasoning (and its reductios) fails.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 25 March 2010 07:55:36PM *  -1 points [-]

It's not an observation. It's an inference for which you need the anthropic principle. "Few have succeeded so far" is an observation. You'd need to observe the future to observe "Few will succeed".