Steve comments on The Proper Use of Doubt - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 August 2007 08:29PM

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Comment author: Steve 18 January 2008 03:29:57AM 1 point [-]

'No, they are to doubt that perhaps their doubts may grow and become stronger.'

This establishes the a rule for using doubt as bias against any future information that would perhaps increase preexisting doubts. It is a bias because it does not apply the rule for doubt about anything that perhaps increases belief, or perhaps maintains the assessment of current doubt/belief.

Having instructed a rule for doubt about 'perhaps' for only one 'perhaps', the rule provides a default increase in the amount of information required to overcome that particular 'perhaps'. That increased amount of information needed is the amount needed to overcome the imposed 'doubt'.

That this amount is established by rule conveys the requirement of 'faith' because it replaces a methodology that is falsifiable with one that is not.