DanielLC comments on Rationality Quotes January 2014 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Mestroyer 04 January 2014 07:39PM

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Comment author: DanielLC 11 January 2014 07:59:12PM 3 points [-]

Writing a string of symbols, publishing it, and selling it more times than has been managed with all but 100 strings of symbols.

Comment author: Dan_Weinand 13 January 2014 03:32:25AM -1 points [-]

Give machine A one nickel and have it produce a random sequence of 499 characters. Have machine B write a random sequence of 500 characters. Code machine A to pay machine B one nickel for its "book" whenever it has a nickel. Code machine B to give a nickel to machine A for its book whenever it has a nickel. Wait perhaps a few days, and you will have two bestselling authors reminiscent of Zach Weiner's Macroeconomica http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2855

Comment author: DanielLC 13 January 2014 06:49:29PM 2 points [-]

Selling to humans then. Also, only count the number of humans that bought the book, rather than the number of books sold, so you can't just sell a billion copies to one person.

A more simple version: write a set of strings such that a given panel of judges considers it to be a good book.