When you use terms like “draw a hard causal boundary” I’m forced to imagine you’re actually drawing these things on the back of a cocktail napkin somewhere using some sorts of standard symbols. Are there such standards, and do you have such diagrams scanned in online somewhere?
ETA: A note for future readers: Eliezer below is referring to Judea Pearl (simply “Pearl” doesn’t convey much via google-searching, though I suppose “pearl causality” does at the moment)
Hmm… Pearl uses a lot of diagrams but they all seem pretty ad-hoc. Just the sorts of arrows and dots and things that you’d use to represent any graph (in the mathematics sense). Should I infer from this description that the answer is, “No, there isn’t a standard”?
I was picturing something like a legend that would tell someone, “Use a dashed line for a causal boundary, and a red dotted line to represent a logical inference, and a pink squirrel to represent postmodernism”
Um… I’m not sure there’s much I can say to that beyond “Read Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, or Causality”.
Pearl’s system is not ad-hoc. It is very not ad-hoc. It has a metric fuckload of math backing up the simple rules. But Pearl’s system does not include logical uncertainty. I’m trying to put logical uncertainty into it, while obeying the rules. This is a work in progress.
Pearl’s system is not ad-hoc. It is very not ad-hoc. It has a metric fuckload of math backing up the simple rules.
Thomblake’s observation may be that while Pearl’s system is extremely rigorous the diagrams used do not give an authoritative standard style for diagram drawing.
When you use terms like “draw a hard causal boundary” I’m forced to imagine you’re actually drawing these things on the back of a cocktail napkin somewhere using some sorts of standard symbols. Are there such standards, and do you have such diagrams scanned in online somewhere?
ETA: A note for future readers: Eliezer below is referring to Judea Pearl (simply “Pearl” doesn’t convey much via google-searching, though I suppose “pearl causality” does at the moment)
Read Pearl. I think his online intros should give you a good idea of what the cocktail napkin looks like.
Hmm… Pearl uses a lot of diagrams but they all seem pretty ad-hoc. Just the sorts of arrows and dots and things that you’d use to represent any graph (in the mathematics sense). Should I infer from this description that the answer is, “No, there isn’t a standard”?
I was picturing something like a legend that would tell someone, “Use a dashed line for a causal boundary, and a red dotted line to represent a logical inference, and a pink squirrel to represent postmodernism”
Um… I’m not sure there’s much I can say to that beyond “Read Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, or Causality”.
Pearl’s system is not ad-hoc. It is very not ad-hoc. It has a metric fuckload of math backing up the simple rules. But Pearl’s system does not include logical uncertainty. I’m trying to put logical uncertainty into it, while obeying the rules. This is a work in progress.
I’d just like to register a general approval of specifying that one’s imaginary units are metric.
FWIW
Thomblake’s observation may be that while Pearl’s system is extremely rigorous the diagrams used do not give an authoritative standard style for diagram drawing.
That’s correct—I was looking for a standard style for diagram drawing.