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Comment by CooCooCaCha

14 days ago

There is no rhetoric here, it’s just literal truth. There is no implication of equivalence or any statement about the value of objective truth.

Any position is a bias. A flat earther would consider a round-earther biased. That doesn’t make them equal positions.

> Any position is a bias. A flat earther would consider a round-earther biased.

That’s bollocks. The Earth is measurably not flat.

You start from a position of moral relativism and then apply it to falsifiable propositions. It’s really not the same thing. Some ideas are provably false and saying that they are false is not "bias".

  • Dice are considered "biased" if not all sides have equal probability, even if that's literally true.

    When you look up the definition of bias you see "prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair."

    So the way we use the word has an implication of fairness to most people, and unfortunately reality isn't fair. Truth isn't fair. And that's what I'm trying to point out here in reference to LLM output.

    • Right. My point is that there are things we can argue about. "Is it better to have this road here or to keep the forest?", for example. Reasonable people can argue differently, and sensibility is important. Some would be biased towards business and economy, and others would be biased towards conservation. Having these debates in the media is helpful, even if you disagree.

      But "is the Earth flat?" is no such question. Reasonable people cannot disagree, because the Earth is definitely not flat. Pretending like this is a discussion worth having is not being impartial, it’s doing a disservice to the audience.

> truth itself is a bias

Ehh, bias connotes unfairness, but espousing the truth should be considered the fairest position.

In statistics, bias literally refers to an inaccurate distortion of results.

I get what you're trying to say, but I don't think it's a useful definition of bias.

  • Truth isn't fair because reality isn't fair. Dice are considered "biased" if not all sides have equal probability, even though that's the "truth" of the die.