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Vaniver comments on The Doubling Box - Less Wrong Discussion

13 Post author: Mestroyer 06 August 2012 05:50AM

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Comment author: Vaniver 06 August 2012 04:05:27PM *  5 points [-]

But such thought experiments are a way of testing the generality of your decision procedures - do they work in all possible worlds?

As in the old saw, part of your strength as a real decision-maker is that your decision procedures choose less well in impossible worlds than in possible worlds.

Comment author: Nisan 06 August 2012 06:36:03PM 3 points [-]

A world that can support paperclip production of arbitrary magnitude is not an impossible world. The speed of light is a contingent fact.

Comment author: Nisan 06 August 2012 06:34:50PM 1 point [-]

Why does that have to be true?

Comment author: Vaniver 06 August 2012 08:06:30PM 0 points [-]

It doesn't have to be true. It's desirable because decision procedures that rely on other knowledge about reality are faster/better/cheaper than ones that don't import knowledge about reality. Specialization for the situation you find yourself in is often useful, though it does limit flexibility.