Inconsistent statements and causation
Jan 30, 2004, 12:35a
Inconsistent statements and causation:
* There is some Power and Truth held in inconsistent statements that people believe in. Some examples:
Never say never.
This statement is false.
You must believe that all statements could be fallible. (Soros)
Generalizations are bad.
[THINK ABOUT THIS MORE]
* Remember that events can be correlations without being causations. Further, some causations may be neither necessary nor sufficient. Further, they could even be consequences that are observed after the fact, spandrels rather than causations.
What's important is to identify those causations that are necessary or sufficient. In the cases where causations are necessary,
a) Quantify the isolated costs of each causations
b) Quantify the isolated benefits of each causation
c) Identify all causation sets that sum to sufficiency (i.e. sum to meet a specified goal)
d) Quantify the synergistic costs of each set of causations
e) Quantify the synergistic benefits of each set of causations
f) Sum the synergistic and isolated costs of each set of causations
g) Sum the synergistic and isolated benefits of each set of causations
h) For each set, compute the benefit per unit sum cost
i) Choose the set of causations with the greatest benefit per unit cost
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