army1987 comments on The more privileged lover - Less Wrong

-16 [deleted] 04 March 2013 04:20PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (108)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 March 2013 01:31:48PM *  0 points [-]

"All else being equal people can do what they want to, particularly regarding the disposition of their own person, so long as it does not interfere with other people".

Note that you're not actually giving a low-complexity ‘first principle’ from which to derive stuff, but merely hiding complexity away into the word “interfere” -- ‘normal’ humans (who already know what you're saying on some level) will understand (except possibly in borderline cases), but try explaining to an alien or an AI what exactly counts as “interference” and what doesn't.

Comment author: wedrifid 08 March 2013 01:46:30PM *  -1 points [-]

Note that you're just hiding complexity away into the word “interfere”

Just? If you think that my statement doesn't do anything more than hide complexity then you are mistaken in a sense very similar to this. I was referring to a human concept that a reasonable human could be expected to at least approximately understand. That's why we have words.

-- try explaining to an alien or an AI what exactly counts as “interference” and what doesn't.

Many things are hard to explain in full reduced detail. Sometimes it appropriate to attempt such an explanation. Sometimes it is better to just say "It's a tiger".

Comment author: [deleted] 09 March 2013 09:28:48AM 0 points [-]

I didn't clearly express what I was thinking. Edited -- is it better now?

Comment author: wedrifid 09 March 2013 10:59:08AM *  -1 points [-]

I didn't clearly express what I was thinking. Edited -- is it better now?

The same reply applies. You have given a much more detailed explanation of a principle that does not fit the context. Lack of clarity was never a problem.