timtyler comments on "Progress" - Less Wrong

1 Post author: PhilGoetz 04 June 2012 03:51AM

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Comment author: timtyler 04 June 2012 10:02:06AM *  0 points [-]

I do believe "progress" is a meaningful term. But there isn't some cosmic niceness built into the universe that makes everything improve monotonically along every dimension at once.

Here's my "progress" advocacy.

I don't think I go that far, though. Everyone acknowledges setbacks, AFAIK. Meteorite strikes for example.

Your article seems to link equality with progress - but ISTM that this relationship is pretty weak.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 04 June 2012 01:47:51PM 0 points [-]

No, equality is just one example. The basic point is that you can have two variables of interest, and increasing one smoothly can cause the value of the other to fluctuate non-smoothly.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 June 2012 11:55:03PM 0 points [-]

The basic point is that you can have two variables of interest, and increasing one smoothly can cause the value of the other to fluctuate non-smoothly.

The article requires registration or prior membership, so I wonder if that's your conclusion or the authors. Does the author make a convincing case that growing complexity—as opposed to some underlying variable, like Marxian mode of production— causes these nonmonotonic changes?

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