wedrifid comments on Fundamentals of kicking anthropic butt - Less Wrong

18 Post author: Manfred 26 March 2012 06:43AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 16 April 2012 05:54:52PM 1 point [-]

I don't understand. I have the information "I am an animal" and "I am a human". If I start with "I am an animal" and update with "I am a human", I get something different than if I start with "I am a human" and update with "I am an animal". How do I get the correct answer?

Why do you end up with something different if you update in a different order? If you want a way to get the correct answer, work out why you do that and stop doing it!

Comment author: DanielLC 16 April 2012 08:36:47PM 0 points [-]

Why do you end up with something different if you update in a different order?

I'd say it's because I should be updating in both cases, rather than starting with "I am an animal" or "I am a human". I should start with "I am conscious", because I can't not be, and then update from there.

I'm trying to show that picking reference classes arbitrarily leads to a contradiction, so SSA, as currently stated, doesn't work. If it does, what other solution is there to that paradox?