TheAncientGeek comments on Occam's Razor - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 26 September 2007 06:36AM

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Comment author: TheAncientGeek 12 April 2015 04:51:06PM *  1 point [-]

Possibly because .Solomonoff induction isnt very suitable to answering the kinds of questions philosophers want answered, questions of fundamental ontology.. It can tell you what programme would generate observed data, but it doesn't tell you what the programme is running on..the laws of physics, Gods mind, .or a giant simulation. OTOH, traditional Occams razor can exclude a range of ontological hypotheses.

There is also the problem that there is no absolute measure of the complexity of a programme: a programming language is still a language, and some languages can express some things more concisely than others, as explained in kokotajlods other comment. http://lesswrong.com/lw/jhm/understanding_and_justifying_solomonoff_induction/ady8