Is the origin of the name LessWrong related to Karl Popper’s ideas? Popper showed that you can’t prove a scientific theory, you can only disprove it. So current Scientific “truth” is the Less Wrong explanation that today best fits the observable facts, not necessarily the Right explanation.
I don’t think so. My guess is Eliezer came up with the name, or at least approved it, and he’s a staunch Bayesian. In Bayesianism, you have hypotheses (“explanations”) and evidence you collect will cause you consider some hypotheses more or less likely than others. Famously 0 And 1 Are Not Probabilities (though this is disputed) and you can never be completely certain, but it’s symmetrical – never completely certain something is correct or incorrect. Overall, I recommend Bayesianism.
Philosophy of “Right explanation” gets a little tough between what’s just our models vs the actual reality. I’m pretty happy with models/explanations that mean I make good predictions about my future experiences.
Is the origin of the name LessWrong related to Karl Popper’s ideas? Popper showed that you can’t prove a scientific theory, you can only disprove it. So current Scientific “truth” is the Less Wrong explanation that today best fits the observable facts, not necessarily the Right explanation.
I don’t think so. My guess is Eliezer came up with the name, or at least approved it, and he’s a staunch Bayesian. In Bayesianism, you have hypotheses (“explanations”) and evidence you collect will cause you consider some hypotheses more or less likely than others. Famously 0 And 1 Are Not Probabilities (though this is disputed) and you can never be completely certain, but it’s symmetrical – never completely certain something is correct or incorrect. Overall, I recommend Bayesianism.
Philosophy of “Right explanation” gets a little tough between what’s just our models vs the actual reality. I’m pretty happy with models/explanations that mean I make good predictions about my future experiences.