Alicorn comments on Comments for "Rationality" - Less Wrong

2 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 16 March 2009 10:34PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 27 May 2009 08:40:05PM 0 points [-]

Suppose I have a blind man and a sighted man. The blind man has a cataract that could be repaired with surgery. I tell them that a jar contains a very large number of pebbles, all of them are either green or blue, and there are twice as many of one color than the other. I pull out a random pebble, which turns out to be green, and show it to both the men. I ask them to write down what they think the probability is that the next pebble I pull out will be green. The sighted man writes 51%; the blind man writes 50%. Who is more rational?

Comment author: Alicorn 27 May 2009 08:42:51PM *  0 points [-]

Does it count if I want to call the blind man irrational for not having repaired his eyesight? Or are we pretending he has a good reason? Or would the intended example be the same if he had irreparable blindness?