Comment author: JoshuaFox 19 February 2015 07:45:04PM *  11 points [-]

I'd like to see the best anti-MWI/Everett article out there.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 20 February 2015 08:02:27AM 3 points [-]

Here are the best items I have found in my search for anti-MWI reading. Some present anti-MWI arguments but in the end are pro-MWI.

  • David Wallace, The Emergent Multiverse (Pro; Anti-Everett arguments in the interludes)
  • Steven Weinberg: Lectures on Quantum Mechanics, sec. 3.7 (Seemingly pro-Everett, but in the end saying all current theories are flawed)
  • Adrian Kent, "Against Many-Worlds Interpretations" (Anti)
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics " (Mostly Pro, Anti in sec.6)
Comment author: DanielLC 20 February 2015 01:52:08AM *  4 points [-]

Instructions for polls are here: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Comment_formatting#Polls. In the mean time, I'll get this one for you.

Would anyone be interested in a follow-up sequence to the quantum physics sequence that presents arguments on all sides equally?

Submitting...

Comment author: JoshuaFox 20 February 2015 07:03:23AM *  1 point [-]

I'd be even more glad to read an article that specifically is against MWI/Everrett (or whatever you call it).

David Wallace, The Emergent Multiverse, Interludes I and II, presents both sides but in the end is pro-MWI.

A coherent, intelligent, reasonable article by an advocate of the other side would make things clearer.

Comment author: RobbBB 19 February 2015 10:28:25PM *  2 points [-]

It's not clear that 'MWI' in the LW sense has very much content -- in particular, it's not clear that Eliezer is committed when he endorses MWI to Carroll's description above. His recognition of the mysteriousness of 'reality fluid' and his willingness to entertain ideas like mangled worlds suggests he's perfectly happy to modify QM to generate the Born probabilities, provided the modifications reflect the character of physical law better than Bohmian Mechanics and objective collapse do.

If MWI is just 'Bohmian mechanics is wrong' plus 'objective collapse is wrong' plus 'the right answer will structurally resemble our current physics', then the best articles criticizing MWI might be ones that defend Bohmian mechanics or an objective collapse theory as non-ridiculous, and argue that until we have a finished empirically adequate MWI we can't be confident it will actually turn out simpler or more-in-the-character-of-physics than BM.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 20 February 2015 07:01:04AM 2 points [-]

Yes, those are all possibilities for what I am looking for. I'll let the experts decide: I'll be glad to read a coherent defense of Copenhagen, objective collapse, etc. or whatever it is that Hugh Everett/David Deutsch/Max Tegmark/Sean Carroll/etc are up against.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 19 February 2015 07:45:04PM *  11 points [-]

I'd like to see the best anti-MWI/Everett article out there.

Comment author: MakoYass 13 February 2015 06:58:37AM 0 points [-]

The link to A Kruel's blog has 404ed. What did it say? My bets on "something superficially respectable under the transhumanist aesthetic but irredeemably incorrect" because I've never seen a Kruel post that wasn't like that.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 13 February 2015 08:59:51AM 2 points [-]

Thank you. I have removed the link from the Wiki. The item is available in archive.org. It's a short description of acausal trade with a focus on simulation as the way that one agent predicts the other's behavior.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 12 February 2015 06:05:42PM 0 points [-]

If asked your salary requirements, put off your answer to as late a phase as possible.

I precommit to myself to always say "let's see if we're a fit first, I'm sure we'll agree on a reasonable salary" at any phase of negotiations before they know they want me. " I perfume to do this even I think it will lose me the job. I don't think it ever has.

When asked my salary requirements by third party recruiters, I always say " you're the expert. You know the member better than i do. What do you think i can make at a stretch?"

One way to get yourself some flexibility is to remember that compensation includes not only salary but also various benefits. So, if you crack under pressure and tell them previous pay or requirements, you can use that fact to later give your answers the interpretation you want.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 12 February 2015 05:56:02PM 0 points [-]

If asked your previous salary, say "my contract with my former employerforbids me to say that [which is probably true], and I take my responsibilities to my employers very seriously."

Comment author: JoshuaFox 11 February 2015 04:07:30PM 5 points [-]

I rewrote the LW Wiki article on Acausal Trade. I had originally written this article, but it was too heavily based on multiverse concepts, which are not essential to acausal trade. Also, it made too much use of quasimathematical variables.

I rewrote it in the style I'd use to explain the concept face-to-face to a LessWronger. I will appreciate edits and improvements on the Wiki. Actually, it would be good to see a number of articles, including one in academic style.

This is, as far as I know, the only article explaining the concept. Considering that this term is in common use in LW circles and was even used in Bostrom's recent academic article, I am surprised that no one else has written one.

Comment author: Raiden 04 February 2015 03:15:14AM *  3 points [-]

Would a boxed AI be able to affect the world in any important way using the computer hardware itself? Like, make electrons move in funky patterns or affect air flow with cooling fans? If so, would it be able to do anything significant?

Comment author: JoshuaFox 05 February 2015 05:51:38AM *  3 points [-]

See a recent MIRI paper.

A narrow AI, "tasked with designing an oscillating circuit, re-purposed the circuit tracks on its motherboard to use as a radio which amplified oscillating signals from nearby computers."

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 03 February 2015 11:21:02AM *  4 points [-]

I don't understand the details, so this is all just guessing... but seems to me it's something about induction and infinity. How, if you are not careful enough, you could use induction to prove something that is not true. Something like: "There is a natural number greater than 1. If there is a natural number greater than N, there is also a natural number greater than N+1. Therefore, there is a natural number greater than any natural number." but more complicated.

The procrastination paradox seems to have a form of: "To believe that I will clean my room some day, it is not necessary to clean it today. I just have to know that starting tomorrow, I will clean it in a finite time." Which seems reasonable, but then tomorrow, you will use the very same reasoning for postponing the cleaning yet another day. Et cetera, forever.

In the context of self-modifying agents, imagine that you are trying to build a room-cleaning AI. Is it okay to accept as a "provably room-cleaning AI" one that does not clean the room today, but tomorrow it self-modifies to a provably room-cleaning AI? If you say yes, you may build a machine that will never actually clean the room. But it is difficult to explain why "no" is the correct answer, because it seems completely harmless.

tl;dr: Don't use infinite induction to prove that something will happen in a "finite but unspecified time", because the limit of "finite but unspecified time" could easily be "never".

Comment author: JoshuaFox 05 February 2015 05:43:26AM *  0 points [-]

Thank you. That matches up with that I was thinking; it's good to get a confirmation. At first glance, it looks like a discount factor would settle the agent's problem, but that's only if we're working with probabilistic beliefs and expected value rather than deterministic proofs.

Could you help me level up my understanding?

  1. It looks like the discussion of the Procrastination Paradox in the Vingean Reflection article depends on a reflectivity property in the agent. Does that somehow bypass the Löbstable? Or if not, how is it related to Löb's theorem?

  2. Is there something more to the Procrastination Paradox than just "I can prove that I'll do it tomorrow, so I won't do it today?" By itself, that doesn't look like an earth-shaking result.

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