nshepperd comments on We Change Our Minds Less Often Than We Think - Less Wrong

39 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 October 2007 06:14PM

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Comment author: nshepperd 10 January 2012 01:38:50PM 0 points [-]

I feel like "technically false" would be more accurate. If it's just you, the horse, and a puddle, it's surely going to be at least difficult to convince it to start slurping it up if it doesn't want to.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 January 2012 01:41:31PM 0 points [-]

I feel like "technically false" would be more accurate. If it's just you, the horse, and a puddle, it's surely going to be at least difficult to convince it to start slurping it up if it doesn't want to.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink if you aren't very imaginative and your resources are artificially limited".

Comment author: TheOtherDave 10 January 2012 02:56:04PM 5 points [-]

If they're sufficiently limited, you can't even lead a horse to water.

Comment author: nshepperd 13 January 2012 11:33:14PM 2 points [-]

There is a sense of "drink" which encompasses raising a glass to your mouth and ingesting the liquid in it, or in the case of horses, lowering their head to the water, taking some into the mouth and swallowing it.

Sticking a tube down a horse's throat certainly achieves something, but not precisely this.

Comment author: dlthomas 13 January 2012 11:54:52PM 0 points [-]

Presumably your goal is a hydrated horse, however.

Comment author: wedrifid 14 January 2012 12:20:07AM 0 points [-]

You could alo be trying to drug the horse or provide him with nutritional supplementation in liquid form.

Comment author: CuSithBell 14 January 2012 12:22:02AM 1 point [-]

Another example of the danger of explicit goal maximizers.