Ian_C. comments on Absolute Authority - Less Wrong

44 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 January 2008 03:33AM

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Comment author: Ian_C. 08 January 2008 12:09:35PM 0 points [-]

'Any other meaning you could assign to the word "certain" makes it useless because everything falls on one side.'

Yes, exactly. The concept of "certainty" as colloquially used has no referents. It is such a strict standard, the only things that could possibly be referents for it are statements made by an omniscient entity. A statement by any lesser entity could be wrong and therefore could not be a referent. We are beating ourselves up over a concept no more valid that "unicorn."