timtyler comments on Value is Fragile - Less Wrong

41 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 January 2009 08:46AM

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Comment author: timtyler 13 February 2013 12:11:33AM *  2 points [-]

In hindsight we shouldn't really have expected otherwise; simple models in general have predictive power only in simple/narrow contexts.

Counter-example 1: gene-frequency maximization in biology. A tremendously simple principle with enormous explanatory power.

Counter-example 2: Entropy maximization. Another tremendously simple principle with enormous explanatory power.

Note that both are maximization principles - the very type of principle whose limitations you are arguing for.