Comments for N=1

Comment on Sleeping Beauty Intuition Pump by JeffJo

JeffJo — Sun, 05 May 2013 11:30:45 +0000

World A.

Replace that one person with ten. Each gets assigned a different combination of {cancer,waking time} that corresponds to the wakings in your scenario. The combination is not told to them. Each is woken at most once, in the appropriate circumstances. If woken, each should be 90% sure (s)he has cancer.

And no,it does not matter that in your problem, the person is sure to be woken at least once. Each waking corresponds to a specific time, whether or not the person knows that time.

Comment on High-end faux friendliness at low-end prices by Drive-By Poster

Drive-By Poster — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:28:03 +0000

I for one am offended by American customer service. I thought slavery was abolished! Why am I being treated like a master? I’m not kidding. I really do appreciate a grumpy waiter or waitress more than a bubbly or apologetic one, and I’m short of sympathy for the sort of self-entitled customers who write up negative reviews when given less than royal treatment. Ugh, I can hear the scoffing now.

I’ll take a human being over a smiling robot any day.

Comment on Flaws of humanism by Humanism « N=1

Humanism « N=1 — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:51:29 +0000

[...] Humanist thinking also includes greatly overestimating how many things are uniquely human. [...]

Comment on Natural by Humanism « N=1

Humanism « N=1 — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:51:26 +0000

[...] ‘natural‘ – If humans build a skyscraper it’s unnatural, but if bees build a beehive it’s natural. If humans clean a new environment with antibacterial soap, it’s unnatural, but if Jewel Wasps do it it’s natural (note: ants also make antibiotics). And so on. All living and non-living things affect the environment around them. Humans have their own niches in that regard (in terms of how we do it), but so does everything else. [...]

Comment on Doomsday argument by Sister Y

Sister Y — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:48:05 +0000

How do you feel about Sleeping Beauty?

I kind of love John Leslie’s book “The End of the World” on the doomsday argument, but part of it is for pointing me to the absolute crap state of arguments why humanity SHOULD continue existing.

Comment on Doomsday argument by AlexSchell

AlexSchell — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:22:24 +0000

Almost certainly better to move on with your life. The “Mind” paper isn’t nearly as clear as the book is, but the essence boils down to this: if you accept the arguments for the self-sampling assumption, you get to reason as if you were a randomly sampled human, regardless of the fact that you, Jason Roy, could not have existed anywhere but here and now. So the only question is whether you accept the arguments for the self-sampling assumption.

Comment on Doomsday argument by jason roy

jason roy — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:51:20 +0000

Thanks for pointing me to this but, ugh, these are some of the worst arguments I’ve ever read. Now I have to decide if I should address Bostrom’s critique of objection 5 or just move on with my life. I probably won’t be able to let it go, unfortunately.

Comment on Doomsday argument by AlexSchell

AlexSchell — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:35:06 +0000

This is a line of argument that has been made many times. The doomsayers are quite aware of it and reject it on not clearly unreasonable grounds.

See e.g. “Objection Five” here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13100539/bostrom_DA_is_alive.pdf

or the more detailed treatment in “Anthropic Bias” (ch. 6,7)

Comment on Infrastructure: canalization of society by freelearner

freelearner — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:20:42 +0000

Real education reform is currently impossible, which is why my kids are homeschooled. Canalization means you have no choice but to go outside the system entirely, if you possibly can. Same goes for mainstream medicine and mainstream media.

Comment on Avoid ‘elderly’? by Karen

Karen — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:10:14 +0000

I agree that the term elderly connotes some physical, emotional, or psychological weakness, and true to its definition, many want to describe people in their 70, 80s and 90s as elderly. Well as a younger “giggle” middle-aged woman, I have had the pleasure of sharing a glass of wine and holding very interesting conversations with physically fit women aged 70, 80, and even 90. Therefore, I naturally cringe at the use of the word. It is discriminatory and derogatory. My own mothers uses the term to get the “guilt trip” out of her daughters…but I refuse to let my very independent mom get away with it!