Good points. There were several chapters in Rationality: A-Z dedicating to this. According to Max Tegmark’s speculations, all mathematically possible universes exist, and we happen to be in one described by a simple Standard Model. I suspect that this question about why simple explanations are so effective in this universe is unanswerable but still fun to speculate about.
Good points about the lack of emphasis on hypothesis-formation within the Bayesian paradigm. Eliezer talks about this a little in Do Scientists Already Know This Stuff?
Sir Roger Penrose—a world-class physicist—still thinks that consciousness is caused by quantum gravity. I expect that no one ever warned him against mysterious answers to mysterious questions—only told him his hypotheses needed to be falsifiable and have empirical consequences.
I long for a deeper treatment on hypothesis-formation. Any good books on that?
. I suspect that this question about why simple explanations are so effective in this universe is unanswerable but still fun to speculate about.
What does “effective” mean? If you are using a simplicity criterion to decide between theories that already known to be predictive , as in Solomonoff induction, then simplicity doesn’t buy you any extra predictiveness.
Good points. There were several chapters in Rationality: A-Z dedicating to this. According to Max Tegmark’s speculations, all mathematically possible universes exist, and we happen to be in one described by a simple Standard Model. I suspect that this question about why simple explanations are so effective in this universe is unanswerable but still fun to speculate about.
Good points about the lack of emphasis on hypothesis-formation within the Bayesian paradigm. Eliezer talks about this a little in Do Scientists Already Know This Stuff?
I long for a deeper treatment on hypothesis-formation. Any good books on that?
What does “effective” mean? If you are using a simplicity criterion to decide between theories that already known to be predictive , as in Solomonoff induction, then simplicity doesn’t buy you any extra predictiveness.