PhilGoetz comments on To like, or not to like? - Less Wrong

2 Post author: PhilGoetz 14 November 2013 02:26AM

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Comment author: komponisto 14 November 2013 03:24:51AM *  0 points [-]

I can easily compute how likely it is that one of the Elizabethan authors was the greatest author of all time given that hypothesis 2 is false:

...Yes, the answer is 0, since hypothesis 2 is "an Elizabethan author was the greatest author of all time":

Hypothesis #2 is that something about the time that Shakespeare wrote in made it very likely that we would elevate some writer from that time period to "Greatest Writer Ever".

(I think you should reword this to clarify what you really meant, whatever that might be.)

Comment author: PhilGoetz 14 November 2013 06:32:50AM 0 points [-]

No, hypothesis 2 is not "an Elizabethan author was the greatest author of all time". Hypothesis 2 is what I said it was. I don't think I can say it any more clearly.

Comment author: komponisto 15 November 2013 07:14:40PM 0 points [-]

You should have been more explicit about your assumption that "greatest author" != "person humans 'elevate' as greatest author", especially since I think it's false.