Meetup : Edinburgh LW Meetup

1 sark 13 October 2011 01:48PM

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh LW Meetup

WHEN: 20 October 2011 02:00:00PM (+0100)

WHERE: Delhi Cafe, 67 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Topic: Value Complexity & Instrumental Rationality

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh LW Meetup

Meetup : Edinburgh Weekday LW Meetup

1 sark 15 September 2011 03:53PM

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh Weekday LW Meetup

WHEN: 21 September 2011 01:00:00PM (+0100)

WHERE: Delhi Cafe, 67 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

The Edinburgh LW meetups resume. The topic shall be: Value Complexity & Instrumental Rationality. See you there!

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh Weekday LW Meetup

Meetup : Edinburgh Tiny Meetup Reminder

0 sark 30 June 2011 10:58AM

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh Tiny Meetup Reminder

WHEN: 02 July 2011 02:00:00PM (+0100)

WHERE: Delhi Cafe, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Same place. Same time.

Discussion article for the meetup : Edinburgh Tiny Meetup Reminder

Comment author: gwern 25 June 2011 01:27:25PM 1 point [-]

Yes.

Comment author: sark 25 June 2011 02:11:26PM 0 points [-]

I don't doubt that might be the ultimate cause, as different methods are amenable to different subject matters. But that does not affect the inference I want to draw here, that in doing abstract reasoning, one has to hold oneself to a ridiculously high standard of precision and rigor.

Comment author: sark 25 June 2011 11:24:12AM 4 points [-]

Supernaturalism is a distraction. Theologists defend supernaturalism as an indirect way of defending whatever God they want to believe in. See http://www.uncrediblehallq.net/2011/06/24/atheism-is-just-thinking-there-arent-any-gods/.

The sequences are not specifically tailored to convince people of atheism. They are rather a more general set of tools in going about and reasoning about the world. So don't over-ascribe relevance to atheism many of the philosophical ideas you see in there.

Comment author: gwern 24 June 2011 11:51:47PM 2 points [-]

It's interesting that you think there's a distinction to be made between the methods of philosophy and math, as opposed to their subject matters.

Comment author: sark 25 June 2011 10:06:00AM 0 points [-]

So are you suggesting their differences in success has to do with subject matter?

Comment author: Manfred 24 June 2011 07:18:21PM 0 points [-]

Model uncertainty only has a big effect on probabilities that are defined as not (some event with probability near 1). When talking about specific scenarios with low probability, model uncertainty just scales them - e.g. a specific god existing in Pascal's wager isn't vastly over or underestimated if model uncertainty isn't accounted for.

Comment author: sark 25 June 2011 10:05:23AM 0 points [-]

Hmm, why is this the case? I think I'm missing background knowledge here.

Question about Large Utilities and Low Probabilities

4 sark 24 June 2011 06:33PM

Advanced apologies if this has been discussed before.

Question: Philosophy and Mathematics are fields in which we employ abstract reasoning to arrive at conclusions. Can the relative success of philosophy versus mathematics provide empirical evidence for how robust our arguments must be before we can even hope to have a non-negligible chance of arriving at correct conclusions? Considering how bad philosophy has been at arriving at correct conclusions, must they not be essentially as robust as mathematical proof, or correct virtually with probability 1? If so, should this not cast severe doubt on arguments showing how, in expected utility calculations, outcomes with vast sums of utility can easily swamp a low probability of their coming to pass? Won't our estimates of such probabilities be severely inflated?

Related: http://lesswrong.com/lw/673/model_uncertainty_pascalian_reasoning_and/

Comment author: [deleted] 24 June 2011 03:19:29PM 0 points [-]

What happens at these meetings?

In response to comment by [deleted] on Meetup : Edinburgh Grand Meetup
Comment author: sark 24 June 2011 04:30:11PM 1 point [-]

We talk. Discuss stuff usually discussed on LW. In a social setting.

Comment author: sark 23 June 2011 10:25:16AM 0 points [-]

Ahem, that embedded map on this page is not right! Why does it show New Delhi?

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