AlephNeil comments on "Ray Kurzweil and Uploading: Just Say No!", Nick Agar - Less Wrong

4 Post author: gwern 02 December 2011 09:42PM

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Comment author: AlephNeil 03 December 2011 11:23:36PM *  0 points [-]

I agree that definitions (and expansions of the language) can be useful or counterproductive, and hence are not immune from criticism. But still, I don't think it makes sense to play the Bayesian game here and attach probabilities to different definitions/languages being correct. (Rather like how one can't apply Bayesian reasoning in order to decide between 'theory 1' and 'theory 2' in my branching vs probability post.) Therefore, I don't think it makes sense to calculate expected utilities by taking a weighted average over each of the possible stances one can take in the mind-body problem.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 04 December 2011 12:13:07AM *  1 point [-]

Gosh, that's not useful in practice far more widely than that, and not at all what I suggested. I object to exempting any and all decisions from potential to be incorrect, no matter what tools for noticing the errors are available or practical or worth applying.