Wes_W comments on Rationality Quotes August 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: RolfAndreassen 04 August 2014 03:12AM

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Comment author: Wes_W 11 August 2014 07:57:09PM 4 points [-]

If the country of rationalists is attacked by a country of barbarians who are perfectly optimized for conquest, the rationalists will get conquered.

This is not inconsistent with the claim that, if the country of rationalists is attacked by a country of barbarians who are imperfectly optimized for conquest, the rationalists might get conquered, with the risk depending on how optimized the barbarians are. And, for that matter, the rationalist nation probably isn't theoretically optimal either...

On balance, believing true things is an advantage, but there are other kinds of advantages which don't automatically favor the rationalist side. Sheer numbers, for example.

Comment author: Jiro 11 August 2014 08:06:24PM 1 point [-]

This is not inconsistent with the claim that, if the country of rationalists is attacked by a country of barbarians who are imperfectly optimized for conquest, the rationalists might get conquered, with the risk depending on how optimized the barbarians are.

How imperfectly optimized, though? Imperfectly optimized like Omega controlling each barbarian but occasionally rolling the barbarian's morale check, which fails on a 1 on a D100? Or imperfectly optimized like real life barbarians?

Comment author: V_V 11 August 2014 08:44:40PM 2 points [-]

What about the Bolsheviks? Or the WW2-era Japanese?