Armok_GoB comments on Open Thread: July 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Alicorn 09 July 2010 06:54AM

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Comment author: Armok_GoB 31 July 2010 01:20:05PM 1 point [-]

It's arbitrarily chosen from the dust speck being -1, I find it easier to imagine one second of torture than years for comparing to something that happens in less than a second. It's just an example.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 31 July 2010 01:30:52PM *  2 points [-]

It's just an example.

The importance of an argument doesn't matter for the severity of an error in reasoning present in that argument. The error might be unimportant in itself, but that it was made in an unimportant argument doesn't argue for the unimportance of the error.

Comment author: Armok_GoB 31 July 2010 05:45:10PM 0 points [-]

Oh. I misinterpreted what error you were referencing. yea, you're right I guess.

Sorry.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 31 July 2010 05:51:43PM 2 points [-]

And from this I can't infer whether communication succeeded or you are just making a social sound (not that it's very polite of me to remark this).

Comment author: Armok_GoB 31 July 2010 08:41:12PM 4 points [-]

I first thought you had a problem with me making the number -1 000 000 from nowhere. Later I realized you meant that to some people it might not be obvious that the utility of 50 years of torture is the average utility per second time the number of seconds.