JulianMorrison comments on Rationality is Systematized Winning - Less Wrong

48 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 April 2009 02:41PM

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Comment author: JulianMorrison 03 April 2009 09:17:06PM *  5 points [-]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_free_lunch_in_search_and_optimization

No search algorithm beats random picking in the totally general case. This implies the totally general case must include an equal balance of pathology and sanity. Intuitively, a problem could be structured so every good decision gives a bad result.

Edit: this post gives a perfect example of a pathological problem: there is only one decision to be made, a Bayesian loses, a random picker gets it right half the time and an anti-Bayesian wins.

However we seem to be living in a sane universe.