While rationality is nominally that which wins, and so is thus complete, in practice people want consistent, systematic ways of achieving rationality, and so the term comes to have the double meaning of both that which wins and a discovered system for winning based around a combination of traditional rationality, cognitive bias and heuristic research, and rational agent behavior in decision theory, game theory, etc.
I see post-rationality as being the continued exploration of the former project (to win, crudely, though it includes even figuring out what winning means) without constraining oneself to the boundaries of the latter. I think this maybe also better explains the tension that results in feeling a need to carve out post-rationality from rationality when it is nominally still part of the rationalist project.
Rationality is a combination of keeping your map of the world as correct as you can (“epistemic rationality”, also known as “science” outside of LW) and doing things which are optimal in reaching your goals (“instrumental rationality”, also known as “pragmatism” outside of LW).
The “rationalists must win” point was made by EY to, basically, tie rationality to the real world and real success as opposed to declaring oneself extra rational via navel-gazing. It is basically “don’t tell me you’re better, show me you’re better”.
For a trivial example consider buying for $1 a lottery ticket which has a 1% chance of paying out $1000. It is rational to buy the ticket, but the expected outcome (mode, in statitics-speak) is that you will lose.
I see post-rationality as being the continued exploration of the former project (to win, crudely, though it includes even figuring out what winning means) without constraining oneself to the boundaries of the latter.
So, um, how to win using any means necessary..? I am not sure where do you want to go outside of the “boundaries of the latter”.
Rationality is a combination of keeping your map of the world as correct as you can (“epistemic rationality”, also known as “science” outside of LW)
I’m not sure that’s what people usually mean by science. And most of the questions we’re concerned about in our lives (“am I going to be able to pay the credit in time?”) are not usually considered to be scientific ones.
While rationality is nominally that which wins, and so is thus complete, in practice people want consistent, systematic ways of achieving rationality, and so the term comes to have the double meaning of both that which wins and a discovered system for winning based around a combination of traditional rationality, cognitive bias and heuristic research, and rational agent behavior in decision theory, game theory, etc.
I see post-rationality as being the continued exploration of the former project (to win, crudely, though it includes even figuring out what winning means) without constraining oneself to the boundaries of the latter. I think this maybe also better explains the tension that results in feeling a need to carve out post-rationality from rationality when it is nominally still part of the rationalist project.
I don’t think it is.
Rationality is a combination of keeping your map of the world as correct as you can (“epistemic rationality”, also known as “science” outside of LW) and doing things which are optimal in reaching your goals (“instrumental rationality”, also known as “pragmatism” outside of LW).
The “rationalists must win” point was made by EY to, basically, tie rationality to the real world and real success as opposed to declaring oneself extra rational via navel-gazing. It is basically “don’t tell me you’re better, show me you’re better”.
For a trivial example consider buying for $1 a lottery ticket which has a 1% chance of paying out $1000. It is rational to buy the ticket, but the expected outcome (mode, in statitics-speak) is that you will lose.
So, um, how to win using any means necessary..? I am not sure where do you want to go outside of the “boundaries of the latter”.
I’m not sure that’s what people usually mean by science. And most of the questions we’re concerned about in our lives (“am I going to be able to pay the credit in time?”) are not usually considered to be scientific ones.
Other than that minor nitpick, I agree.