solipsist comments on Irrationality Game III - Less Wrong

11 Post author: CellBioGuy 12 March 2014 01:51PM

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Comment author: solipsist 12 March 2014 06:45:29PM *  28 points [-]

You (the reader) do not exist.

EDIT: That was too punchy and not precise. The reasoning behind the statement:

Most things which think they are me are horribly confused gasps of consciousness. Rational agents should believe the chances are small that their experiences are remotely genuine.

EDIT 2: After thinking about shminux's comment, I have to retract my original statement about you readers not existing. Even if I'm a hopelessly confused Boltzmann brain, the referent "you" might still well exist. At minimum I have to think about existence more. Sorry!

Comment author: [deleted] 16 March 2014 03:11:30AM 3 points [-]

Cogito, ergo upvoto. :-)

Comment author: [deleted] 12 March 2014 06:58:05PM *  1 point [-]

.

Comment author: solipsist 12 March 2014 07:30:34PM *  2 points [-]

To quote the adage, I'm a solipsist, and am surprised everyone else isn't too. I think any intelligent agent should conclude that it is probably something akin to a Boltzmann brain. You could plausibly argue that I am cheating with pronoun references (other people might agree with the solipsistic logic, but centered around them). Is that what you are asking?

EDIT

Is there anything about the world that you expect would appear different to you because of this belief?

Not really. I think some of the problems with AIXI may be AIXI acting rationally where the desired behavior is irrational, but that's the only time I can think of it coming up outside of a philosophy discussion.

Comment author: maia 12 March 2014 07:05:23PM 1 point [-]

Could you be more specific about what you mean by that?

Comment author: solipsist 12 March 2014 07:52:17PM *  1 point [-]

Of all possible minds thinking the thought that I am thinking right now, most aren't living on earth, posting to Less Wrong. Most are random fluctuations in high-entropy soup after the heat-death of the universe, or bizarre minds capable of belief but not thought, or other deluded or confused agents. In all but a negligible fraction of these, you, maia, do not exist.

Comment author: rthomas6 12 March 2014 08:55:13PM *  0 points [-]

What degree of certainty do you place on that belief?

Comment author: solipsist 12 March 2014 10:16:28PM *  0 points [-]

I could put numbers to it, but it would really be pulling them out of my butt -- how certain are you that anthropic reasoning is valid? If it is valid (which seems more likely than not), then you quickly run into the problem of Boltzmann brains. Some people try to exorcise Boltzmann brains from their anthropic viewpoint, but I have no problem with biting the bullet that most brains are Boltzmann brains. The practical implications of that belief, assuming the world is as it appears to be, are (I believe) minimal.