There is no dichotomy here: it is possible to both keep blogs and publish in mainstream journals.
Marlon
Karma: 42
This should be interesting to look at
Same reason why milesmathis (google it, have fun) isn’t taken, and shouldn’t be taken seriously by the mainstream. Because “playing by the rules” didn’t work—you usually end up with an unending amount of crackpottery in what is actually not published: books, blogs, etc.
Not publishing in the mainstream while publishing books and self published articles is the crackpott’s artillery, unfortunately.
Think like the mainstream: given the amount of crazy stuff that’s present on the internet that couldn’t be published because it was, indeed, crazy, should I care about this particular guy that doesn’t publish anything but books (or self published articles) ? The unfortunate answer is no.
I agree, most writings are derived from academic works.
That may seem weird, but I don’t think “basic clear thinking” should be excluded from academia. Philosophy problems should in my opinion not simply be something we “solve it ourselves”, and should enter as formal as it can in academia. I may also simply be unaware of the possibly similar works on this problem too.
That said, I haven’t been confused by this problem either, simply got more confused after reading LW and asking what people thought around me—that it was really something that bothered people.
And TDT has been self published … Why not in mainstream academia ?
MIRI self publishes if I’m not wrong.
Why not publish in mainstream academia ?
LW should go into mainstream academia ?
Is this simply one statement ? Is Solomonoff complexity additive with multiple statements that must be true at once ? Or is it possible that we can calculate the probability as a chain of Solomonoff complexities, something like:
s1, s2 … etc are the statements. You need all of them to be true: magic powers, matrix, etc. Are they simply considered as one statement with one Solomonoff complexity K = 2^(x) ? Or K1K2… = 2 ^ (x1 + x2 + …) ? Or K1^K2^… = 2^(2^(2^...)) ?
And if it’s considered as one statement, does simply calculating the probability with K1^K2^… solve the problem ?
Point taken on the summation of the possibilities, they might not sum to zero.
Also, does invoking “magic powers” equal invoking an infinite ? It basically says nothing except “I can do what I want”
I think you are overestimating the probabilities there: it is only Pascal’s Mugging if you fail to attribute a low enough probability to the mugger’s claim. The problem, in my opinion, is not how to deal with tiny probabilities of vast utilities, but how not to attribute too high probabilities to events whose probabilities defy our brain’s capacity (like “magic powers from outside the Matrix”).
I also feel that, as with Pascal’s wager, this situation can be mirrored (and therefore have the expected utilities canceled out) if you simply think “What if he intends to kill those people only if I abide by his demand ?”. As with Pascal’s wager, the possibilities aren’t only what the wager stipulates: when dealing with infinites in decision making (I’m not sure one can say “the probability of this event doesn’t overcome the vast utility gained” with such numbers) you probably have another infinite which you also can’t evaluate hiding behind the question.
Tell me your thoughts.
Hello. New to the active part of the site, I’ve been lurking for a while, reading much discussions (and not always agreeing, which might be the reason I’m going active). I’ve come to the site thanks to HPMOR and the quest towards less bias.
I’m a (soon starting a PhD) student in molecular dynamics in France, skeptic (I guess) and highly critical of many papers (especially in my field). Popper is probably the closest to how I define, although with a few contradictions, the philosophy of what I’m doing.
I’m in the country of wine, cheese and homeopathy, don’t forget it :)
Indeed, I stand corrected.
I still find a rather big amount of self-published articles in this list. I find the idea of self-publishing articles to be a bit self-defeating :/