All of Robin2's Comments + Replies

Robin200

Perhaps you could call Gygax a pioneer in developing virtual reality.

Robin2-20

Hmm... while these are all useful guidelines for how to use words, but I don't think all of them define wrong ways of using words. For example "You use a short word for something that you won't need to describe often, or a long word for something you'll need to describe often. This can result in inefficient thinking, or even misapplications of Occam's Razor, if your mind thinks that short sentences sound "simpler"" Which sounds more plausible, "God did a miracle" or "A supernatural universe-creating entity temporarily s... (read more)

6MugaSofer
The point is that the longer sentence sounds less plausible. Using shorthand ("God" for "A supernatural universe-creating entity" and "miracle" for "temporarily suspended the laws of physics") makes the concept sound less improbable. Thus it is "wrong", in that it is a bad idea (supposedly.)
Rixie130

Oh, the irony.

It doesn't matter that Eliezer defined the word "wrong" in a different way than you. You still understand what he means, there's no point to redefining "wrong" in this case.

Robin270

Has anybody thought of prediction markets as a form of insurance? Suppose you don't like Hillary, then you can bet she wins the nomination. If she doesn't, you're happy because you don't like her. If she does, you win some money, either way you win.

Of course, if people did this it would make prediction markets less accurate.

0fortyeridania
Why would it make prediction markets less accurate? Does this problem adversely affect the prices of actual insurance?
7DanielLC
I know Steven Hawking did. He bet against the existence of black holes. If it turned out all that work he did was worthless, at least he'd get a free magazine subscription.