Shane Legg wrote:
Ben,
So you really think AIXI is totally "useless"? I haven't been reading
Richard's comments, indeed I gave up reading his comments some
time before he got himself banned from sl4, however it seems that you
in principle support what he's saying. I just checked his posts and
can see why they don't make sense, however I know very well that
shouting rather than reasoning on the internet is a waste of time.
Shane,
This is a pity.
I began my recent criticism of AIXI with some precise, technically clear
comments about what I saw to be the core reason why AIXI is of no value.
I put considerable thought and care into the wording of those remarks.
I framed them as questions, but in the end I got (IMO) no meaningful
reply to those questions.
One thing I have noticed is that there are some people who react to
intellectual critiques of that sort by criticising the person, not the
argument. There is no excuse for this: in my remarks I did not use
insults, bullying, innuendo or any other disgraceful tactics in order to
make my case. The remarks were also not handwaving or vague: they were
perfectly meaningful questions about the connection between mathematical
models and the observable events that those models purport to represent.
Rather than make any response to my remarks, Shane, all you could do was
try to damn them by innuendo, by making some insulting comments about
that astonishing episode on the SL4 list last year, and by hinting that
my remarks were "shouting" rather than "reasoning."
I am disgusted by your behavior and dismayed by what looks like an
inability to comprehend the arguments.
Richard Loosemore.
P.S.
Just for the record, that "astonishing episode on the SL4 list" involved
(1) a set of arguments I made about a technical issue, which resulted in
(2) a firestorm of ad hominem attacks directed at me, which then
(3) came to an abrupt end when I suggested that someone take the
argument to an impartial expert in the field, to get their opinion.
The episode came to an abrupt end because, rather than wait to see what
an impartial expert might say, Eliezer Yudkowsky immediately banned me
from the SL4 list and then, within a day or so, banned all further
discussion of the topic.
Wondering if perhapsI was going insane, I *did* talk to some outside
experts afterwards. They confirmed that the arguments that I had
presented were perfectly coherent.
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