Activity
#5528·Dennis HackethalOP, about 21 hours agoThe approach underestimates how easy it is to come up with variations. It’s trivially easy to come up with infinitely many just by, for example, adding nonsense that has an incrementing counter:
plaintext➜ hard-to-vary git:(master) python3 htv.pyHard-to-Vary Explanation Comparator-----------------------------------What question are you trying to answer?> Why are there seasons?Enter explanations one at a time.Press Enter on an empty line when you're done.Explanation 1: Because god did it.Explanation 2: Because of axial tilt.Explanation 3:============================================================Explanation:Because god did it.Enter variations of this explanation that would still work to explain the same thing.Press Enter on an empty line when you're done.Variation 1: Because god did it while wearing 1 green hat.Variation 2: Because god did it while wearing 2 green hats.Variation 3: Because god did it while wearing 3 green hats.Variation 4: Because god did it while wearing 4 green hats. And so on.Variation 5:============================================================Explanation:Because of axial tilt.Enter variations of this explanation that would still work to explain the same thing.Press Enter on an empty line when you're done.Variation 1: Because of axial tilt while I wear 1 green hat.Variation 2: Because of axial tilt while I wear 2 green hats.Variation 3: Because of axial tilt while I wear 3 green hats.Variation 4: Because of axial tilt while I wear 4 green hats. And so on.Variation 5:============================================================Question:Why are there seasons?============================================================HARDNESS-TO-VARY RANKING============================================================Rank 1Explanation: Because god did it.Working variations submitted: 4 variationsRank 1Explanation: Because of axial tilt.Working variations submitted: 4 variationsFewer working variations = harder to vary.Result:The two explanations are equally hard to vary.
As I explained in #5553, the program operates on the user's current understanding of the explanation.
In this case, though, I think the green-hat example actually illustrates what it means for an explanation to be easy to vary.
Suppose my explanation really is “God causes the seasons while wearing one green hat,” and I genuinely think I can change that to two hats, three hats, a thousand hats, etc. without affecting the explanation at all. Then the number of hats is completely unconstrained by what I'm trying to explain. Nothing in the explanation tells me why it should be one rather than two or a thousand.
I would consider that a problem with the explanation, not with the HTV comparison. It's exactly the kind of arbitrariness that HTV is supposed to expose.
Of course, the program isn't going to enumerate infinitely many hats. It only works with the variations the user actually comes up with. But if I can keep producing arbitrary variations without affecting the explanatory argument, that seems like evidence that the explanation is easy to vary, not a reason to reject the method.