Perplexed comments on Defecting by Accident - A Flaw Common to Analytical People - Less Wrong

86 Post author: lionhearted 01 December 2010 08:25AM

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Comment author: Perplexed 01 December 2010 11:55:23PM 4 points [-]

I don't think "are generally" applies "no matter the the direction or even existence of causal relations".

If A causes E and B independently causes E, then there will be correlation between A and E and between B and E, but no reason to expect correlation between A and B.

Comment author: wnoise 02 December 2010 12:36:00AM 0 points [-]

You're right, and I really should have known better. This is one of the examples used in Judea Pearl's Casaulity, about how to assign plausible causation structures given only correlations.