pjeby comments on Instrumental Rationality is a Chimera - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Tom_Talbot 16 April 2009 11:15PM

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Comment author: Tom_Talbot 17 April 2009 12:25:58AM 1 point [-]

the rational way is the way that produces predictably suitable results relative to your desired level of utility and/or investment for that result.

I apologise, but is there some simpler way for you to express this? I do not understand what it means. If you stated it in terms of real-life thoughts, actions and problems I might grasp it better.

the procedures you use will be defined by testing according to some predefined criteria, after being generated through creative and/or problem-solving processes.

Again, is there some simpler way to express this? Who generated the procedures? Was it me or someone else? How are the procedures defined by the testing criteria? Surely a procedure is a sequence of steps toward some goal, and does not have a definition.

And that, more or less, is the skillset (or at least the rough scope of such a skillset) of instrumental rationality.

I remain hopelessly unenlightened.

What are these, exactly?

Logical fallacies, bayes theorem, working knowledge of the scientific method and knowledge of heuristics and biases.

Comment author: pjeby 17 April 2009 02:18:41AM 0 points [-]

Who generated the procedures? Was it me or someone else? How are the procedures defined by the testing criteria? Surely a procedure is a sequence of steps toward some goal, and does not have a definition.

mattnewport has already answered the rest, so I'll just fill in this bit. What I said was:

And in general, the procedures you use will be defined by testing according to some predefined criteria, after being generated through creative and/or problem-solving processes.

Meaning, "the procedures you use" (e.g. for toast-buttering) "will be defined" (i.e., determined, circumscribed, narrowed, filtered, specified) "by testing" (to determine suitability) "according to some predefined criteria" (i.e., your criteria for what a successful result would consist of) "after being generated" (i.e., first you generate procedures, then you test them), "through creative and/or problem-solving processes" (i.e., either you generate improvements on, alternatives to, or solutions for problems in an existing procedure, borrow a procedure from someone else, or attempt to invent or derive one from scratch.)

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