TheAncientGeek comments on Is Determinism A Special Case Of Randomness? - Less Wrong

-4 Post author: DonaldMcIntyre 04 May 2015 01:56AM

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Comment author: Houshalter 04 May 2015 05:00:55AM 4 points [-]

I don't understand the distinction between "consequence of previous events" and "consequence of decision making". If your decisions aren't a consequence of previous events, then they are just meaningless randomness.

Your decisions should ideally be as correlated as possible with your values and with the information you have. The more random your actions, the less likely they are to result in anything desirable.

And randomness is very distinct from the old concept of free will. Randomness is not your will. You have no control over it. Rather it controls you.

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 04 May 2015 05:06:10PM -1 points [-]

Your decisions should ideally be as correlated as possible with your values and with the information you have. The more random your actions, the less likely they are to result in anything desirable.

How can you know the best way of fulfilling your values if you don't experiment?

Is unpredictability never a value in itself?

Comment author: Houshalter 04 May 2015 06:17:20PM 0 points [-]

People are horrible at being random even when they try. Test yourself here: http://www.loper-os.org/bad-at-entropy/manmach.html