ChristianKl comments on prediction and capacity to represent - Less Wrong

-5 Post author: sbenthall 04 November 2014 06:09AM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 04 November 2014 02:58:16PM 3 points [-]

It's possible to predict the behavior of black boxes without knowing anything about their internal structure.

In general, we can say that people do not have the capacity to explicitly represent other people very well. People are unpredictable to each other. This is what makes us free. When somebody is utterly predictable to us, their rigidity is a sign of weakness or stupidity.

That says a lot more about your personal values then the general human condition. Many people want romantic partners that understand them and don't associate this desire with either party being weak or stupid.

We are able to model the internal structure of worms with available computing power.

What do you mean with that sentence? It's obviously true because you can model anything. You can model cows as spherical bodies. We can model human behavior as well. Both our models of worms and of humans aren't perfect. The models of worms might be a bit better at predicting worm behavior but they are not perfect.

Comment author: sbenthall 08 November 2014 06:11:27AM 0 points [-]

It's possible to predict the behavior of black boxes without knowing anything about their internal structure.

Elaborate?

That says a lot more about your personal values then the general human condition.

I suppose you are right.

The models of worms might be a bit better at predicting worm behavior but they are not perfect.

They are significantly closer to being perfect than our models of humans. I think you are right in pointing out that where you draw the line is somewhat arbitrary. But the point is the variation on the continuum.