casebash comments on The Number Choosing Game: Against the existence of perfect theoretical rationality - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (151)
So you have deliberately constructed a scenario, then defined "winning" as something forbidden by the scenario. Unhelpful.
You have specified multiple games. I have defined a finite set of solutions for each Actor that can all be stated as "use the stopping function". If your Actor has no such function, it is not rational because it can get stuck by problems with the potential to become unbounded. Remember, the Traveling Salesman must eventually sell something or all that route planning is meaningless. This sort of thing is exactly what a stopping function is for, but you seem to have written them out of the hypothetical universe for some (as yet unspecified) reason.
Incorrect. People do it all the time, and it is now easier than ever. Moreover, I object to the comparison of your essay with a book. This context is more like a conversation than a publication. Please get to the point.
You have done nothing but remove criteria for stopping functions from unbounded scenarios. I don't believe that is convincing anybody of anything. I suspect the statement "not every conceivable game in every conceivable universe allows for a stopping function that does not permit somebody else to do better" would be given a non-negligible probability by most of us already. That statement seems to be what you have been arguing, and seems to coincide with your title.
Friendly Style Note: I (just now) noticed that you have made some major changes to the article. It might be helpful to isolate those changes structurally to make them more visually obvious. Remember, we may not be rereading the full text very often, so a timestamp might be nice too. :)
You'll be pleased to know that I found a style of indicating edits that I'm happy with. I reaslised that if I make the word edited subscript then it is much less obnoxious, so I'll be using this technique on future posts.
That sounds like it will be much easier to read. Thank you for following up!