cousin_it comments on Open Thread: July 2010 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: komponisto 01 July 2010 09:20PM

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Comment author: cousin_it 02 July 2010 07:10:01PM 5 points [-]

since level IV requires consistency, it would require a much better understanding of what consistent rule systems look like

Wha? Any sequence of observations can be embedded in a consistent system that "hardcodes" it.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 04 July 2010 02:34:28PM 1 point [-]

Yeah, that's a good point. Hardcoding complicated changes is consistent. So any such argument of this form about level IV fails. I withdraw that claim.

Comment author: DanielVarga 04 July 2010 08:15:54PM *  0 points [-]

Tegmark level IV is a very useful tool to guide one's intuitions, but in the end, the only meaningful question about Tegmark IV universes is this: Based on my observations, what is the relative probability that I am in this one rather than that one? And this, of course, is just what scientists do anyway, without citing Tegmark each time. Hardcoded universes are easily dealt with by the scientists' favorite tool, Occam's Razor.