Nornagest comments on Probability is Subjectively Objective - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 July 2008 09:16AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 30 September 2013 03:48:38PM 1 point [-]

That's because the gas station owner still believes in the value of the dollar. But if all of you stopped believing in it...

Comment author: Nornagest 30 September 2013 05:16:14PM *  1 point [-]

Sure. When we're looking at socially constructed stuff, though, I'm not sure it makes sense to treat its reality as discrete rather than continuous.

It's tempting to use money as a measure of social reality, actually, since it's valuable directly in proportion to people's belief in its value. Unfortunately it's hard to put a dollar value on, say, traffic laws, which share the same property (a point driven home for me the first time I encountered rush-hour traffic in Manila).