TheOtherDave comments on Terminal Bias - Less Wrong

18 [deleted] 30 January 2012 09:03PM

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Comment author: bryjnar 31 January 2012 11:16:08AM 1 point [-]

it's a bias if it keeps you from achieving your other values.

This is nonsense. I have a desire for ice cream, but also a desire to stick to my diet and lose weight. Oh no, my desire to stick to my diet is preventing my from achieving my desire for ice cream, it must be a bias!

Comment author: TheOtherDave 31 January 2012 02:56:54PM 2 points [-]

Agreed, but nyan_sandwich touches on an interesting point.

Certainly, there are lots of situations where I have one set of cognitive structures that encourage me to behave one way (say, eating ice cream, or experimenting to discover what's actually true about my environment, or whatever) and a different set encouraging me to behave a different way (say, avoiding empty calories, or having high confidence in what I was taught as a child, or whatever).

It seems to me that when I call one of those structures a "bias" I'm suggesting two things: first, that I don't endorse it, and second, that it's relatively broad in applicability.

But that in turn suggests that I can eliminate a bias simply by endorsing its conclusions, which is.. not uncontroversial.