Comments on: Despite treating a caricature of a caricature with trivial algorithms

By: Adar

Adar — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:58:01 +0000

“blockade research would be further used in Vietnam as part of the ‘Operation Market Time’ blockade/intercept line, where OEG optimized it & showed that the blockade there too was highly effective in eliminating Vietcong supplies”

Market Time and Game Warden that blockade one of the few [??] successes in Nam?

By: Lu An Li

Lu An Li — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 13:37:19 +0000

“armed ships had a 10% loss rate versus unarmed ships’ 25% loss rate”

The mere PRESENCE of anti-aircraft weaponry on the ships caused the attacking warplanes to fly higher and take some sort of evasive action that made the bomb run less accurate and effective. Even if not one shot fired by the defender!

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:49:46 +0000

I noticed that discrepancy as well.

Although Chesterton was not one of them, there are a large number of people who hold the view Gwern criticizes.

By: Candide III

Candide III — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 13:55:51 +0000

Gwern is treating a caricature of a caricature of Chesterton’s fence argument. This is easy to prove by reading one paragraph of Chesterton’s text laying out his argument. (Talk about people not being able to learn the right thing in the first place, and about there not being enough reliable transmission of information within societies!) In fact, Chesterton didn’t argue that mere humans cannot hope to improve upon nor understand evolved mechanisms, or that evolved mechanisms for dealing with realities much more complex than mathematically trivial board games or ASW are rich and highly effective. He wrote,

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

By: Gaikokumaniakku

Gaikokumaniakku — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 13:42:31 +0000

Edison was a recognized genius. He had wealth. He had social connections to people who wanted to keep Americans alive. And yet people ignored him. Such is the idiocy of centralized government in the wrong hands.

Shockley was not recognized as a towering genius when he made his discoveries, but still the thundering idiots ignored him.

What hope can there be for human rationality when the likes of Edison and Shockley are ignored during times of crisis?