from Hacker News

Kolmogorov Complicity and the Parable of Lightning (2017)

by phab on 12/18/21, 5:30 PM with 99 comments

  • by chrispeel on 12/18/21, 10:33 PM

    In case you missed it, there is such a thing as "Kolmogorov complexity"; I guess the author is making an alliterative pun by titling the post "Kolmogorov complicity"

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolmogorov_complexity

  • by exolymph on 12/18/21, 9:57 PM

    This was published in response to a lament about James Damore, in case anyone is wondering about the immediate context. The proximate issue was that women and men, on average / in aggregate, are different. But the general principles apply to other issues as well.

  • by marcosdumay on 12/18/21, 10:19 PM

    Well, if you want to do it right, you don't just "not discuss" the orthodoxy, you go out of your way to make discussing the orthodoxy very clearly forbidden on the research circle. You put "we won't allow anybody to talk about lightning" on the first paragraph of your institution's code of conduct. You actively censor people discussing it, and do all you can to erase it from their history.

    On a related matter, people actively insisting that you discuss the lightning issue may be consciously trying to do the exact opposite, and get you in trouble. And, of course, if discussing the orthodoxy gets people in trouble, that's a different issue from the orthodoxy itself and you may be more or free to talk about it, or maybe less, it has to be independently evaluated.

  • by Wolfenstein98k on 12/19/21, 12:18 AM

    He really is an excellent writer, isn't he?

  • by xondono on 12/18/21, 11:04 PM

    I miss SSC so much

  • by xbar on 12/19/21, 2:50 AM

    Contrary to many places, the comments on SSC provide the better reading.

  • by throwaway81523 on 12/18/21, 10:26 PM

    2017. Raised eyebrows for a moment because slatestarcodex moved to another url a year or so ago.