RichardKennaway comments on In favour of terseness - Less Wrong

12 Post author: Sophronius 08 March 2014 06:01PM

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Comment author: Sophronius 08 March 2014 08:04:05PM *  1 point [-]

Yes, free will is a good example of a subject that is often made ridiculously complicated. (Edit: Removed the bit that was wrong). Here's my quick (edited) attempt on free will:

What does it mean to have Free will? Presumably it means that "you" decide your actions freely. If "you" is your conscious brain, then clearly you do affect your decisions for if this were not the case you would not have evolved a conscious brain in the first place. The fact that it can be predicted what decision you will make does not make it any less your decision, so this is irrelevant. However, your actions are restrained by your environment and influenced by instincts and unspoken thoughts and feelings as well. All in all, it can be said that we have limited free will, though the concept itself is confusing and better done away with.

I was actually thinking about writing and posting a Mini Meta-ethics Q&A in this style. There is so much overly convoluted writing and general confusion on the subject that I feel there would be added value in this. What do you (and others) think?

Comment author: RichardKennaway 11 March 2014 01:35:52PM 1 point [-]

Is that intended to be a summary of what Eliezer wrote, or a summary of your own view? I don't recognise it as a summary of Eliezer's writing on the subject, which is much more than a single article. (Non-spoiler posts; spoiler posts.)Either way, there is nothing in that summary that would move me to update in any direction.

Comment author: Sophronius 11 March 2014 02:41:37PM 2 points [-]

Oops. That's what I get for basing a reply on memory alone. I have to say, 11 blog posts does seem kind of ridiculous for what Yudkowsky calls "the easiest 'hard' question". Not sure why I thought it was only one.

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 17 March 2014 03:34:16PM 0 points [-]

He isn't a terse writer. And I'm not sure if you want terse expression or simplification of concepts themselves.