robertskmiles comments on Firewalling the Optimal from the Rational - Less Wrong

86 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 October 2012 08:01AM

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Comment author: robertskmiles 08 October 2012 01:58:27PM 1 point [-]

I think the idea of 'probability as authority' makes some sense as a metaphor. Probability has some rules, and if you follow those rules you are rewarded, and if you break those rules you are punished. The reward and punishment come in the form of 'making good decisions' and 'making dumb decisions'. I'd say probability is an authority in roughly the same way that gravity is a law, i.e. not really, but an occasionally useful metaphor.

This sounds like a disagreement in definitions of "Authority". It's probably worth tabooing it.