GloriaSidorum comments on Fallacies of Compression - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 February 2008 06:51PM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 10 April 2013 05:57:46PM 0 points [-]

Sure. Though even in cases like that, humans have a way of generalizing these sorts of things -- that is, of inferring an intensional definition which they extend, rather than treating the set strictly extensionally. It would not surprise me if after a few generations such a community came to consider marrying someone whose parent has the same first name as oneself to be |kàù, for example.

Comment author: GloriaSidorum 10 April 2013 06:59:48PM 0 points [-]

If I recall correctly, they actually do. It falls under their incest taboo. So "bad" in any culture could probably be defined by a list of generalised principals which don't necessarily share any characteristics other than being labelled as "bad".

Comment author: TheOtherDave 10 April 2013 09:57:52PM 0 points [-]

Yup, more or less agreed.