shminux comments on Rationality Quotes July 2014 - LessWrong

6 Post author: VAuroch 06 July 2014 06:51AM

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Comment author: shminux 27 July 2014 02:53:32AM *  1 point [-]

Chomsky’s response to a given international event is one of the most predictable phenomena I can think of—even the comets and the tides throw more curveballs. One could easily replace him with a chatbot.

Scott Aaronson.

EDIT: to clarify, if you can predict what a famous personality is going to say on a given topic well enough to replace it with a chatbot, listening to said personality on that topic no longer has much value.

Comment author: William_Quixote 31 July 2014 06:29:41PM 5 points [-]

Physicists's responses to a given claim of discovering FTL signaling are one of the most predictable phenomena I can think of—even the comets and the tides throw more curveballs. One could easily replace them with a chatbot.

Comment author: Wes_W 31 July 2014 06:44:38PM *  5 points [-]

Well, yeah. If I were a physicist, I might find it annoying to give the same press interview for every individual incorrect claim of FTL signaling. It might be nice if somebody replaced me with a chatbot and let me go back to doing physics.

Predictable isn't necessarily the same as wrong. I suppose, here, one must distinguish between listening as "seeking out the person's opinion" and listening as "assigning credence to that opinion". I can listen-1 to crackpots, but I don't listen-2 to them. I listen-2 to my role models, even when I don't need to listen-1 to them (thanks to my ability to model their response).

Comment author: Will_Sawin 06 August 2014 06:48:36PM 1 point [-]

Do you often read physicist's response to claims of FTL signalling? It seems to me like there is not much value in reading these, per the quote.

Comment author: Thomas 31 July 2014 06:42:59AM 3 points [-]

to clarify, if you can predict what a famous personality is going to say on a given topic well enough to replace it with a chatbot, listening to said personality on that topic no longer has much value.

Not true. A chatbot (complex enough), can give you an interesting result you haven't thought about it before.

Comment author: MondSemmel 27 July 2014 01:28:00PM 2 points [-]

Downvoted for the original context of the quote: blue and green politics, strawmanning, etc.

Comment author: shminux 28 July 2014 07:51:12PM *  -1 points [-]

If you read the comment section, Scott is very careful to avoid blue vs green, as evidenced by the nearly equal split of haters and few supporters (distribution of political views on a given issue is rarely normal, it is bimodal more often than not, so the moderates tend to get more hate than support). Granted, the comment itself is obviously a mockery of Chomsky. The context is that Chomsky is so far down one side, his response is predictable enough to be automated.

Comment author: [deleted] 28 July 2014 08:21:44PM 5 points [-]

(After that post in Discussion, every time I read “blue” and “green” my brain automatically replaces them with “attractive” and “creepy”.)

Comment author: ChristianKl 11 August 2014 02:18:31PM 2 points [-]

The context is that Chomsky is so far down one side, his response is predictable enough to be automated.

That's only true if the person who's reading the post can only see black and white and who doesn't care about deeper understanding and arguments.

In this case Chomsky would probably speak about how Hamas usually does claim responsibility for terror acts that it commits. The latest conflict escalated on grounds that Israel claimed that Hamas is responsible for a kidnapping for which Hamas didn't claim responsibility. Speaking about the timing and the motivation of various parties for the kidnapping could be interesting.

Analysis of Egypt's role in this conflict would be interesting. Especially as Egypt lately outlawed the Muslim brotherhood.

Comment author: V_V 11 August 2014 01:12:47PM 1 point [-]

Scott is very careful to avoid blue vs green, as evidenced by the nearly equal split of haters and few supporters

So it is aqua politics?

Comment author: private_messaging 10 August 2014 09:15:50AM *  0 points [-]

Valid moral judgement of "thousand eyes for an eye" actions is inherently pretty simple; if Scott is looking for something very sophisticated, he's not interested in morality. (One may have a sophisticated response to an eye for an eye situation, but a thousand eyes for an eye is pretty one sided when you do not feel affiliated with either group).

Comment author: Jiro 10 August 2014 04:09:22PM -1 points [-]

Valid moral judgement of "thousand eyes for an eye" actions is inherently pretty simple;

Comparing 1 of something to 1000 of exactly the same thing done under exactly the same circumstances is pretty simple. Needless to say, that doesn't hold true in real life situations. What makes you think it's so simple here?

Comment author: private_messaging 11 August 2014 12:30:35PM *  -1 points [-]

What's your argument? That there may be 1000 to 1 difference in the value of life or something? Apples don't have to weight exactly the same as oranges for 1000 apples to be heavier than 1 orange.

Comment author: satt 16 August 2014 05:27:51PM 4 points [-]

Less Wrong's first Israel/Palestine flame war...this place finally feels like a real blog. [Sniffs, wipes tear from eye.]

Comment author: ChristianKl 11 August 2014 01:54:47PM *  1 point [-]

I think Scott failed the inverse turing test. When reading his blockquote I would be quite confident in identifying that as something that Chomsky didn't write.

Comment author: V_V 11 August 2014 02:50:11PM 0 points [-]

Hardly surpising, since his comment was parody.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 August 2014 06:36:35AM *  0 points [-]

EDIT: to clarify, if you can predict what a famous personality is going to say on a given topic well enough to replace it with a chatbot, listening to said personality on that topic no longer has much value.

This is true to the extent that all of one's beliefs, thoughts and feelings are reflectively consistent, incorporating all available evidence into a cohesive, integrated whole.

Comparatively little of the process of learning is the absorbing of evidence not previously heard. Most of the benefits come from deliberate practice and repetition. If I didn't listen to the advice of people whose advice generation I could emulate I would be much worse off.

Comment author: satt 31 July 2014 05:47:54PM 0 points [-]

Having clicked through and read the rest of Scott's comment, I feel compelled to add the proviso that when applying this heuristic, one should check whether one's predictions are, in fact, accurate.

Comment author: V_V 11 August 2014 12:42:27PM 0 points [-]

EDIT: to clarify, if you can predict what a famous personality is going to say on a given topic well enough to replace it with a chatbot, listening to said personality on that topic no longer has much value.

I've heard that D-Wave quantum computer solves the P vs NP problem. I wonder what Scott Aaronson has to say about it. :D

Comment author: shminux 11 August 2014 04:22:18PM -1 points [-]

Good point.