Vladimir_Nesov comments on Probability is Subjectively Objective - Less Wrong

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

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 15 July 2008 11:00:11PM 0 points [-]

steven: This is false, of course; with sufficiently advanced technology you could build a machine that read out your mind state and caused Earth to disappear once it determined you no longer believed in Earth. Doesn't mean Earth was never real.

There is no clear separation between the mind and the territory. The structure of the mind is instrumental to optimization process. When you change the beliefs, change the state of the mind, you are in fact performing an action on the territory, that is instrumental to the goal. Establishing specific state (process) of the territory is the final goal, so in changing the mind, you are moving the territory along your course. Reality doesn't go away, but it moves a step closer to the attractor, and if it doesn't, you are not being rational.