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Kawoomba comments on Three questions about source code uncertainty - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: cousin_it 24 July 2014 01:18PM

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Comment author: Kawoomba 24 July 2014 03:36:15PM 2 points [-]

1) If you were certain about your source code, i.e. if you knew your source code, uploading your mind should be immediately feasible, subject to resource constraints. Since you do not know how would go about immediately uploading your mind, you aren't certain about your source code. Because the answer is binary (tertium non datur), it follows you're uncertain about your own source code. (No, I don't count vague constraints such as "I know it's Turing computable" as "certainty about my own source code", just as you wouldn't say you know a program's source code just because you know it's implemented on a JVM.)

2) The uncertainty falls in several categories, because there are many ways to partition "uncertainty". For example, the uncertainty is mostly epistemic (lack of knowledge of the exact parameters), rather than aleatoric. Using a different partitioning, the uncertainty is structural (we don't know how to correctly model your source code). There are many more true attributes of the relevant uncertainty.

3) I don't understand the question. Handle to what end?