thomblake comments on Open Thread: April 2010 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Unnamed 01 April 2010 03:21PM

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Comment author: thomblake 30 April 2010 06:34:51PM 2 points [-]

Maybe I'm misreading this, but it looks like you're missing a term...

You said: P(O) = P(B) * P(O|B)

Bayes's theorem: P(O) * P(B|O) = P(B) * P(O|B)

ne?

Comment author: rhollerith_dot_com 30 April 2010 08:48:04PM *  1 point [-]

[Jordan] said: P(O) = P(B) * P(O|B)

Bayes's theorem: P(O) * P(B|O) = P(B) * P(O|B)

I agree that Jordan's equation needs to be adjusted (corrected), but I humbly suggest that in this context, it is better to adjust it to the product rule:

P(O and B) = P(B) * P(O|B).

ADDED. Yeah, minor point.

Comment author: Jordan 04 May 2010 03:41:53AM *  0 points [-]

Yes, correct. I missed that. For the standard Doomsday Argument P(B|O) is probably 1, so it can be excluded, but for alternative classes of people this isn't so.