gwern comments on Rationality quotes: October 2010 - LessWrong

4 Post author: Morendil 05 October 2010 11:38AM

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Comment author: gwern 06 October 2010 08:18:21PM 0 points [-]

I see it as disparaging because I regard it as something a computer ought to be doing. If a human is doing bookkeeping and they aren't doing it for a reason like 'to practice' or 'to understand better', then something is very wrong.

Comment author: NihilCredo 06 October 2010 08:26:30PM *  2 points [-]

Just because something is a job for computers does not mean that it's not a critical job.

Comment author: gwern 06 October 2010 08:47:22PM 0 points [-]

Maintaining a nuclear core at a constant temperature is a very critical job, but I would regard as a dystopia any world where all cores are so maintained by a human and not a microcontroller.

Comment author: NihilCredo 06 October 2010 08:53:06PM 3 points [-]

We are in agreement on that. My point is that the quote "everything else [in scientific rigor] is bookkeeping" conveys the idea that it's not important, not that it isn't a human's job.