Ben_Jones comments on Infinite Certainty - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 January 2008 06:49AM

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Comment author: Ben_Jones 09 January 2008 05:41:56PM 1 point [-]

The proposition in which I repose my confidence is the proposition that "2 + 2 = 4 is always and exactly true", not the proposition "2 + 2 = 4 is mostly and usually true".

I have confused the map with the territory. Apologies. Revised claim: I believe, with 99.973% probability, that P cannot equal 1, 100% of the time! I believe very strongly that I am correct, and if I am correctly, I am completely correct. But I'm not sure. Much better.

I suppose we should be asking ourselves why we tend to try hard to retain the ability to be 100% sure. A long long list of reasons spring to mind....