Normal_Anomaly comments on Open Thread: September 2011 - LessWrong

5 Post author: Pavitra 03 September 2011 07:50PM

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Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 September 2011 10:12:42PM 4 points [-]

It's saying that it may be worth sacrificing accuracy (after first knowing the truth so you know whether to deceive yourself!) in order to deceive another agent: your immune system. It's still important to be rational in order to decide when to be irrational: all the truth still has to pass through your mind at some point in order to behave optimally.

On another note, you may benefit from reciting the Litany of Tarski:

If lying to myself can sometimes be useful, I want to believe that lying to myself can sometimes be useful.

If lying to myself cannot be useful, I want to believe that lying to myself cannot be useful.

Let me not become attached to beliefs I may not want.

Comment author: Armok_GoB 04 September 2011 10:26:44PM 0 points [-]

I know by brain is a massively parallel neural network with only smooth fitness curves, and certainly isn't running an outdated version of Microsoft Windows, but for how it's behaving in response to this you couldn't tell. I'm a sucky rationalist. :(