"maximally informative news is the thing which causes the greatest change in your priors" but would the best news media would constantly swing the readership's sensibilities in a novel direction every single time? It seems like what following this maxim would have to do. First, report on every murder in such a way as to elevate your readership's baseline perceptions of murder. Then, report on stories actively downplaying murder altogether to change their baseline back down. Then, go back to the previous one. Rinse and repeat for every social phenomenon.
...I thought this was a suggestion for *improving* people's media intake!
This was a really bad typo, which I corrected. I should have said, “which causes the biggest change in your actions given your priors”. Now the storm example works — you behave like normal on a sunny day, but change actions when there are storms.
Since the American public is electing the two parties back and forth in Congress at a frequency only last seen in the decade prior to the Civil War, this maxim might suggest we're seeing some of the best political media coverage ever, or at least for the swing voters if not the rest of us.
"maximally informative news is the thing which causes the greatest change in your priors" but would the best news media would constantly swing the readership's sensibilities in a novel direction every single time? It seems like what following this maxim would have to do. First, report on every murder in such a way as to elevate your readership's baseline perceptions of murder. Then, report on stories actively downplaying murder altogether to change their baseline back down. Then, go back to the previous one. Rinse and repeat for every social phenomenon.
...I thought this was a suggestion for *improving* people's media intake!
This was a really bad typo, which I corrected. I should have said, “which causes the biggest change in your actions given your priors”. Now the storm example works — you behave like normal on a sunny day, but change actions when there are storms.
Since the American public is electing the two parties back and forth in Congress at a frequency only last seen in the decade prior to the Civil War, this maxim might suggest we're seeing some of the best political media coverage ever, or at least for the swing voters if not the rest of us.