If you ask it when it made it’s decision, it will point to the time when it analyzed the code.
If you ask the AI when it made its decision it will either point to the time after the analysis or it will be wrong.
I avoided commenting on the ‘subjective experience’ side of things because I thought it was embodying a whole different kind of confusion. It assumes that the AI executes some kind of ‘subjective experience’ reasoning that is similar to that of humans (or some subset thereof). This quirk relies on lacking any strong boundaries between thought processes. People usually can’t predict their decisions without making them. For both the general case and the specific case of the code I gave a correctly implemented module that could be given the label ‘subjective experience’ would see the difference between prediction and analysis.
I upvoted the parent for the use of it’s. I usually force myself to write its in that context but cringe while doing so. The syntax of the English language is annoying.
I upvoted the parent for the use of it’s. I usually force myself to write its in that context but cringe while doing so. The syntax of the English language is annoying.
Really? Do you also cringe when using theirs, yours, ours, mine, and thine?
Mine and thine? They don’t belong in the category. The flaw isn’t that all words about possession should have an apostrophe. The awkwardness is that the pattern of adding the “s” to the end to indicate ownership is the same from “Fred’s” to “its” but arbitrarily not punctuated in the same way. The (somewhat obsolete) “ine” is a distinct mechanism of creating a possessive pronoun which while adding complexity at least doesn’t add inconsistency.
As for “theirs, yours and ours”, they prompt cringes in decreasing order of strength (in fact, it may not be a coincidence that you asked in that order). Prepend “hers” to the list and append “his”. “Hers” and “theirs” feel more cringe-worthy, as best as I can judge, because they are closer in usage to “Fred’s” while “ours” is at least a step or two away. “His” is a special case in as much as it is a whole different word. It isn’t a different mechanism like “thine” or “thy” but it isn’t “hes” either. I have never accidentally typed “hi’s”.
No, I’m not reading the wrong pattern. I’m criticising the pattern in terms of the objective and emotional-subjective criteria that I use for evaluating elements of languages and communication patterns in general. I am aware of the rules in question and more than capable of implementing it and the hundreds of other rules that go into making our language.
The undesirable aspect of this part of the language is this: It is not even remotely coincidental that we add the “ss” sound to the end of a noun to make it possessive and that most modern possessive pronouns are just the pronoun with a “ss” sound at the end. Nevertheless, the rule is “use the appropriate possessive pronoun”… that’s a bleeding lookup table! A lookup table for something that is nearly always an algorithmic modification is not something I like in a language design. More importantly, when it comes to the spoken word the rule for making *nouns possessive is “almost always add ‘ss’”. ‘Always’ is better than ‘almost always’ (but too much to ask). Given ‘almost always’ , the same kind of rule for converting them all to written form would be far superior.
According to subjectively-objective criteria, this feature of English sucks. If nothing else it would be fair to say that my ‘subjective’ is at least not entirely arbitrary, whether or not you share the same values with respect to language.
Yes, this is definitely a difference in how we perceive the language. I don’t see any inherent problem with a lookup table in the language, given that most of the language is already lookup tables in the same sense (what distinguishes ‘couch’ from ‘chair’, for instance). And it would not occur to me to have a rule for “*nouns” rather than the actual separate rules for nouns and pronouns. Note also that pronouns have possessive adjective and possessive pronoun forms, while nouns do not. They’re an entirely different sort of animal.
So I would not think to write “It’s brand is whichever brand is it’s” instead of “its brand is whichever brand is its” anymore than I would think to write “me’s brand is whichever brand is me’s” (or whatever) instead of “my brand is whichever brand is mine”
Yes, this is definitely a difference in how we perceive the language.
I suspect the difference extends down to the nature of our thought processes. Let me see… using Myers-Briggs terminology and from just this conversation I’m going to guess ?STJ.
I tend to test as INTP/INTJ depending, I think, on whether I’ve been doing ethics lately. But then, I’m pretty sure it’s been shown that inasmuch as that model has any predictive power, it needs to be evaluated in context… so who knows about today.
That’s not exactly true, and I didn’t think it had terribly much bearing to my point on account of we’re talking about pronouns, but I’ll amend the parent.
Indeed, and while we’re on the subject of idiolects: my preference is for the spelling to follow the pronunciation. Hence either “Charles’s tie” or “Charles’ tie” is correct, depending on how you want it to be pronounced (in this case I usually prefer the latter option, but the meter of the sentence may sometimes make the other a better choice).
“If you ask the AI when it made its decision it will either point to the time after the analysis or it will be wrong.”
I use “decision” precisely to refer the experience that we have when we make a decision, and this experience has no mathematical definition. So you may believe yourself right about this, but you don’t have (and can’t have) any mathematical proof of it.
(I corrected this comment so that it says “mathematical proof” instead of proof in general.)
Making a claim, and then, when given counter-arguments, claiming that one was using an exotic definition seems close to logical rudeness to me.
It also does his initial position a disservice. Rereading the original claim with the professed intended meaning changes it from “not quite technical true” to, basically, nonsense (at least in as much as it claims to pertain to AIs).
I don’t think my definition is … inconsistent with the sense used in decision theory.
You defined decision as a mathematical undefinable experience and suggested that it cannot be subject to proofs. That isn’t even remotely compatible with the sense used in decision theory.
It is compatible with it as an addition to it; the mathematics of decision theory does not have decisions happening at particular moments in time, but it consistent with decision theory to recognize that in real life, decisions do happen at particular moments.
The explanations given say nothing about the AI’s subjective experience, so they can’t be sufficient to refute my claim about that.
Consider my reply to be to the claim:
If you ask the AI when it made its decision it will either point to the time after the analysis or it will be wrong.
I avoided commenting on the ‘subjective experience’ side of things because I thought it was embodying a whole different kind of confusion. It assumes that the AI executes some kind of ‘subjective experience’ reasoning that is similar to that of humans (or some subset thereof). This quirk relies on lacking any strong boundaries between thought processes. People usually can’t predict their decisions without making them. For both the general case and the specific case of the code I gave a correctly implemented module that could be given the label ‘subjective experience’ would see the difference between prediction and analysis.
I upvoted the parent for the use of it’s. I usually force myself to write its in that context but cringe while doing so. The syntax of the English language is annoying.
Really? Do you also cringe when using theirs, yours, ours, mine, and thine?
Mine and thine? They don’t belong in the category. The flaw isn’t that all words about possession should have an apostrophe. The awkwardness is that the pattern of adding the “s” to the end to indicate ownership is the same from “Fred’s” to “its” but arbitrarily not punctuated in the same way. The (somewhat obsolete) “ine” is a distinct mechanism of creating a possessive pronoun which while adding complexity at least doesn’t add inconsistency.
As for “theirs, yours and ours”, they prompt cringes in decreasing order of strength (in fact, it may not be a coincidence that you asked in that order). Prepend “hers” to the list and append “his”. “Hers” and “theirs” feel more cringe-worthy, as best as I can judge, because they are closer in usage to “Fred’s” while “ours” is at least a step or two away. “His” is a special case in as much as it is a whole different word. It isn’t a different mechanism like “thine” or “thy” but it isn’t “hes” either. I have never accidentally typed “hi’s”.
You’re just reading the wrong pattern. There are simple, consistent rules:
When making a noun possessive, EDIT:
add ’suse the appropriate possessive form with an apostropheWhen making a pronoun possessive, use the appropriate possessive pronoun (none of which have an apostrophe)
EDIT:
Leaving out ” Jesus’ ” for the moment...No, I’m not reading the wrong pattern. I’m criticising the pattern in terms of the objective and emotional-subjective criteria that I use for evaluating elements of languages and communication patterns in general. I am aware of the rules in question and more than capable of implementing it and the hundreds of other rules that go into making our language.
The undesirable aspect of this part of the language is this: It is not even remotely coincidental that we add the “ss” sound to the end of a noun to make it possessive and that most modern possessive pronouns are just the pronoun with a “ss” sound at the end. Nevertheless, the rule is “use the appropriate possessive pronoun”… that’s a bleeding lookup table! A lookup table for something that is nearly always an algorithmic modification is not something I like in a language design. More importantly, when it comes to the spoken word the rule for making *nouns possessive is “almost always add ‘ss’”. ‘Always’ is better than ‘almost always’ (but too much to ask). Given ‘almost always’ , the same kind of rule for converting them all to written form would be far superior.
According to subjectively-objective criteria, this feature of English sucks. If nothing else it would be fair to say that my ‘subjective’ is at least not entirely arbitrary, whether or not you share the same values with respect to language.
Yes, this is definitely a difference in how we perceive the language. I don’t see any inherent problem with a lookup table in the language, given that most of the language is already lookup tables in the same sense (what distinguishes ‘couch’ from ‘chair’, for instance). And it would not occur to me to have a rule for “*nouns” rather than the actual separate rules for nouns and pronouns. Note also that pronouns have possessive adjective and possessive pronoun forms, while nouns do not. They’re an entirely different sort of animal.
So I would not think to write “It’s brand is whichever brand is it’s” instead of “its brand is whichever brand is its” anymore than I would think to write “me’s brand is whichever brand is me’s” (or whatever) instead of “my brand is whichever brand is mine”
I suspect the difference extends down to the nature of our thought processes. Let me see… using Myers-Briggs terminology and from just this conversation I’m going to guess ?STJ.
I tend to test as INTP/INTJ depending, I think, on whether I’ve been doing ethics lately. But then, I’m pretty sure it’s been shown that inasmuch as that model has any predictive power, it needs to be evaluated in context… so who knows about today.
There’s one more rule—if the noun you’re making possessive ends with an s (this applies to both singular and plural nouns), just add an apostrophe.
That’s not exactly true, and I didn’t think it had terribly much bearing to my point on account of we’re talking about pronouns, but I’ll amend the parent.
Indeed, and while we’re on the subject of idiolects: my preference is for the spelling to follow the pronunciation. Hence either “Charles’s tie” or “Charles’ tie” is correct, depending on how you want it to be pronounced (in this case I usually prefer the latter option, but the meter of the sentence may sometimes make the other a better choice).
“If you ask the AI when it made its decision it will either point to the time after the analysis or it will be wrong.”
I use “decision” precisely to refer the experience that we have when we make a decision, and this experience has no mathematical definition. So you may believe yourself right about this, but you don’t have (and can’t have) any mathematical proof of it.
(I corrected this comment so that it says “mathematical proof” instead of proof in general.)
I think most people on LessWrong are using “decision” in the sense used in Decision Theory.
Making a claim, and then, when given counter-arguments, claiming that one was using an exotic definition seems close to logical rudeness to me.
It also does his initial position a disservice. Rereading the original claim with the professed intended meaning changes it from “not quite technical true” to, basically, nonsense (at least in as much as it claims to pertain to AIs).
I don’t think my definition is either exotic or inconsistent with the sense used in decision theory.
You defined decision as a mathematical undefinable experience and suggested that it cannot be subject to proofs. That isn’t even remotely compatible with the sense used in decision theory.
It is compatible with it as an addition to it; the mathematics of decision theory does not have decisions happening at particular moments in time, but it consistent with decision theory to recognize that in real life, decisions do happen at particular moments.
If you believe that we can’t have any proof of it, then you’re wasting our time with arguments.
You might have a proof of it, but not a mathematical proof.
Also note that your comment that I would be “wasting our time” implies that you think that you couldn’t be wrong.
How many legs does an animal have if I call a tail a leg and believe all animals are quadrupeds?
How many legs does a dog have if I call a tail a leg?