a deep, confusing, and extraordinarily common mistake which E. T. Jaynes named the mind projection fallacy. [...] Jaynes, a theorist of Bayesian probability, coined "mind projection fallacy" to refer to the error of confusing states of knowledge with properties of objects. For example, the phrase mysterious phenomenon implies that mysteriousness is a property of the phenomenon itself. If I am ignorant about a phenomenon, then this is a fact about my state of mind, not a fact about the phenomenonFrom Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk by Eliezer Yudkowsky, which is long and very good.
Friday, November 17, 2006
The mind projection fallacy
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