MixedNuts comments on Rationality Quotes April 2012 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 03 April 2012 12:42AM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 04 April 2012 05:45:53PM 1 point [-]

Even if we posit that for every pair of humans X,Y if X thinks thought T then Y is capable of thinking T, it doesn't follow that for all possible Ts, X and Y are capable of thinking T.

That is, whether Alice can think the thought in the first place is not clear.

Comment author: MixedNuts 04 April 2012 06:22:22PM 1 point [-]

If you limit yourself to humans, yes. But at least one mind has to be able to think a thought for that thought to exist.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 04 April 2012 06:57:28PM *  0 points [-]

Ah, I thought you were limiting yourself to humans, given your example.

If you're asserting that for every pair of cognitive systems X,Y (including animals, aliens, sufficiently sophisticated software, etc.) if X thinks thought T then Y is capable of thinking T, then we just disagree.

Comment author: MixedNuts 04 April 2012 07:13:07PM 0 points [-]

Yes, transmission of thoughts between sufficiently different minds breaks down, so we recover the possibility of thoughts that can be thought but not by us. But that's a sufficiently different reason from why there are sensations we can't perceive to show that the analogy is very shallow.