Kindly comments on Conservation of Expected Evidence - Less Wrong

68 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 13 August 2007 03:55PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 10 July 2013 04:38:05PM *  0 points [-]

Therefore, for every expectation of evidence, there is an equal and opposite expectation of counter-evidence.

Eliezer, isn't the "equal" part untrue? I like the parallel with Newton's 3rd law, but the two terms P(H|E)*P(E) and P(H|~E)*P(~E) aren't numerically equal - we only know that they sum to P(H).

Comment author: Kindly 10 July 2013 05:35:30PM 0 points [-]

P(H) is the belief where you start, and P(H|E) and P(H|~E) are the possible beliefs where you end. You could go to one with probability P(E) and to the other with probability P(~E), but due to the identity you quote, in expectation you do not move at all.