taw comments on Dutch Books and Decision Theory: An Introduction to a Long Conversation - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Jack 21 December 2010 04:55AM

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Comment author: AlephNeil 21 December 2010 06:40:36PM 0 points [-]

P(Y|Z)<1

If you say that then you're conceding the point, because Y is nothing other than the conjunction of a carefully chosen subset of the trivial statements comprising Z, re-ordered so as to give a proof that can easily be followed.

Comment author: Will_Sawin 21 December 2010 06:56:06PM 0 points [-]

Figuring out how to reorder them requires mathematical knowledge, a special kind of knowledge that can be generated, not just through contact with the external world, but through spending computer cycles on it.

Comment author: [deleted] 21 December 2010 07:25:25PM 0 points [-]

Yes. It's therefore important to quantify how many computer cycles and other resources are involved in computing a prior. There is a souped-up version of taw's argument along those lines: either P = NP, or else every prior that is computable in polynomial time will fall for the conjunction fallacy.