Yeah, he’s trying to make the argument that Occam’s Razor doesn’t work. He insists he understand probability theory and how Occam’s Razor works, but he still thinks it’s an invalid argument.
I don’t understand why. He’s religious, and he says that Occam’s Razor should prove God exists, then. Because it’s easier to just say, “God did it.” But I argued that God is a complex being.. ehh.
Okay, so astrology to me sounds extremely unscientific. But I haven’t read anything on the subject, and other than knowing that it’s something a lot of scientists thing is.. unscientific. To be perfectly fair, I can’t just dismiss it because other people dismiss it.
I’d like to be able to dismiss it for scientific reasons. Because I was reading my horoscope, and I was like, “Hmm, well these are extremely vague statements that could apply to anyone and I don’t particularly identify with.” But then I was reading a friends, and I majorly freaked out because of how accurate it was.
So because of that, I now want to know the truth. Either astrology works or it doesn’t. Does anyone know how I could go about determining this? I mean, does anyone have any books or online articles that they would recommend? I’d really appreciate it. I just want to understand.
I’m a junior in high school. My GPA isn’t terrible, but isn’t good. 3.6ish. Meh. I’m of relatively average intelligence, I just possess a genuine curiousity for learning and stuffs. So… learning for me requires more effort than most people on here, it seems.
Basically, I’m confused about politics. I don’t really know how to define myself, or even what side I like better (US politics, Republican vs. Democrat), or even if I should identify with a certain party. I have trouble even determining what I think about political issues, because it seems to me like the objective truth, if there is any in politics (to me it seems that multiple solutions exist… yet I assume one has to be at least somewhat more advantageous), is extremely muddled and difficult. And given it’s hard to find an unbiased opinion… I just want the truth, damnit.
If anyone is interested in talking to me about stuffs, feel free to email me or add me on Facebook and message. I’m a part of the LessWrong high school club on Facebook.
I probably share this with many people, it’s just that I haven’t come into direct contact with anyone who shares this. I’m extremely right-brained. I’m an actor. I’m slightly introverted, but I do pretty well with people, I struggle in math and science.
Yet I want to be a scientist. Which is a fairly left-brained aspiration, I think. Especially the heavier sciences, like physics. I don’t know if that’s a realistic goal.
And that isn’t really unusual, my mind is higly regular. It’s just that I’m using my brain for things it’s not as capable of as other people… This is beginning to sound like a disadvantage. But being right-brained isn’t all bad. Coming up with creative ideas is nice and fun. :]
Thanks! :D
Hello! I’m Allison, 16, a Junior in high school.
Yes, I’ve tried to enhance my education.. I mean, my GPA is 3.6, so I don’t think I fit in with the LessWrong community very well. I’m not gifted with a natural born intelligence. I’m not saying I’m stupid, I’m just saying I’m not a genius and have to work pretty hard what comes easily to others. I struggle in math at school, despite being interested in it. I’m a thespian, so I’m fairly right-brained. But even though school is challenging for me, I also sometimes find it boring. And as I like learning, but not learning boring things, I’ve turned to the Internet for knowledge. This Christmas, I’m getting some textbooks found on the LessWrong textbook recommendation page. I try to independently study quantum mechanics (albeit largely unsuccessfully), philosophy, and probability theory.
Heh. Well, my family, none. They’re devoutly religious. I’m not. They don’t know… I’m sort of a closet atheist. And yes, I know I probably shouldn’t care what other people think of me, and just tell my family that I’m not religious. But I do care. So for now, I’m keeping silent. For the longest time, because I’ve been raised in a highly religious environment, I had no friends in real life who were rational/philosophical. BUT. This year I’ve had the pleasure of meeting two great people who have challenged my thoughts on philosophy, and have helped me to refine and develop my views on the subject into what they currently are. Also, they’re fun pals to chat with.
I’m considering being an actor, or possibly a scientist, if I can wrap my mind around the material. I’m not really sure at the moment. I like philosophy, but I can’t really make a career out of majoring in philosophy. Although it would be the most interesting road to poverty.
Thiel Fellowship? Not sure what that is.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/b9/welcome_to_less_wrong/4heq
Also, sorry if this is an extremely long post.
I’m not really sure if there’s any actual link between Nietzsche and rationality, I was merely curious what a person who possesses rationality’s opinion was on Nietzsche. If that makes sense.
Thanks, though. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is on my list to read after I finish Human, All Too Human. On my copy of Human, All Too Human, though, they messed up the formatting of the comma on the main page, it wasn’t centered properly after “Human”, making it look extremely awkward.
I loled. Ironic?
I was, but it would’ve made more sense to refer to Harry’s, sorry, my bad.
*She
Oh.. Erm.. I read that wrong. >_>
Facepalm
This may seem like a silly question, but why isn’t not-not-dying the same thing as dying?
Awhh! :D You’re welcome! It makes me happy knowing I helped someone.. Albeit inadvertedly. :]
Your first link doesn’t work, but I’ll check out the second one. I don’t completely understand, but I understand more than I did before you commented, so thanks! :]
So… Does anyone know of any helpful presentations? My brain likes pictures. This was probably the most helpful thing I’ve come across on here. I’m 16, not the best at math and complex equations, so this sort of helped a lot of stuff click in my mind. :)
Are you referring to staying away from the topic in the essay, or in general? Because I’ll admit to being a complete layman on QM, but I do find it interesting. Mind-blowing and confusing, certainly, but interesting.
“The debate was then concluded, long ago, because this was science and not a debate club.”
Hahahaha. Fair enough point. I’ll change that, I sort of wrote the introduction first, when I had done minimal research, and so when I saw that people still believed in subjective reality, I assumed that it was still a legit viewpoint, even though I disagreed with it. I’m glad that I got the recently revived by quantum mechanics part right though. The audience is my teacher, who’s fairly intelligent, and while I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with the concept, I’m thinking about going into further detail with the quantum mechanics and briefly (if that’s possible) covering how exactly the debate was revived by quantum mechanics. Thank you, Sir.
I’m awfully glad to here that, I’m not a big fan of percentages… Real numbers just come easier to me, I suppose.
Once I figure out the formulat itself, then I feel comfortable using a calculator, but I hate using a calculator if I don’t understand the mental math to begin with.
....Oh.
Well, thanks Owen, Swimmy. I now understand Bayes Theorem significantly more than I did a half hour ago. :)
Thanks. I’m pretty sure I understand now. Although I’m not sure why I get the correct answer when I’m working with the actual numbers and not percentages when I do the math wrong.
But when I do the math like you wrote, I get the right answer for the precentages. So I get that part. But aren’t I ignoring the base rate in the actual numbers one? Or no?
Yes.
He doesn’t accept it at all, no idea why.