David_Gerard comments on Bayesian Adjustment Does Not Defeat Existential Risk Charity - Less Wrong

43 Post author: steven0461 17 March 2013 08:50AM

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Comment author: David_Gerard 17 April 2013 09:31:33PM 2 points [-]

I certainly consider that if you multiply a very tiny probability by a huge payoff and then expect others to take your calculation seriously as a call to action, you're being silly, however it's labeled. Humans can't even consider very tiny probabilities without privileging the hypothesis.

Comment author: private_messaging 17 April 2013 09:46:38PM *  2 points [-]

Note also that a crazy mugger could demand $10 or else 10^30 people outside the matrix will die, and then argue that you should rationally trust him 100% so the figure is 10^29 lives/$ , or argue that it is 90% certain that those people will die because he's a bit uncertain about the danger in the alternate worlds, or the like. It's not about the probability which mugger estimates, it's about the probability that the typical payer estimates.