Dear list, I am an avid follower of the Overcoming Biases blog and am posting what I am about to write for two reasons:
a) I know that several of the authors of the blog are reading this list b) Biases may hint towards some interesting heuristics for AGI development
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias): "A bias is a prejudice
in a general or specific sense, usually in the sense for having a preference to one particular point of view or ideological perspective. However, one is generally only said to be biased if one's powers of judgment are influenced by the biases one holds, to the extent that one's views could not be taken as being neutral or objective, but instead as subjective. A bias could, for example, lead one to accept or deny the truth of a claim, not on the basis of the strength of the arguments in support of the claim themselves, but because of the extent of the claim's correspondence with one's own preconceived ideas. This is called confirmation bias." Humans are biased in their cognition in many ways ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases). A cognitive bias can be compared to an optical illusion. The key difference however is that an optical illusion is relatively easy to recognize where a cognitive bias is not. Imagine what you believe to be true to be about as close to actual reality as the perceived difference in color of checker A and B in the attached image. Now why is that? Cognitive biases could be... a) ...less fit characteristics of human cognition that did not pose too big a problem for humanity to make it to the current day (like an infection prone appendix of the mind - bad but not too bad). b) ...fitness increasing characteristics of human cognition that proved beneficial for our ancestors in the course of evolution but that have lost their value in modern times (like our craving for burgers and fries that back in the days prevented our ancestors from dying should the next harvest not go so well but are causing all kind of obesity related issues in a post caloric scarcity society) c) ...fitness increasing characteristics of human cognition that are just as valid today as they were over the course of evolution. Assuming a) or b) it would be beneficial to overcome biases. Assuming c) it would be detrimental to overcome biases and cognitive biases may even be interesting heuristic mechanisms that are helping us to make decisions under uncertainty. Is there a convincing argument either way? May some biases fall under a), some under b), and some under c)? Thanks, Stefan -- Stefan Pernar App. 1-6-I, Piao Home No. 19 Jiang Tai Xi Lu 100016 Beijing China Mobil: +86 1391 009 1931 Skype: Stefan.Pernar ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=e9e40a7e
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