RichardKennaway comments on A Proof of Occam's Razor - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Unknowns 10 August 2010 02:20PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 12 August 2010 01:31:56PM 0 points [-]

Am I missing any topics?

In getting to some of those things, there are some more basic subjects that would have to be mastered:

  • Algebra: giving names to unknown numerical quantities and then reasoning about them the way one would with actual numbers.

  • Calculus: the relationship between a rate of change and a total amount, and the basic differential equations of physics, e.g. Newtonian mechanics, the diffusion equation, etc.

If this all seems like a lot, many people spend until well into their twenties in school. Think where they would get to if all that time had been usefully spent!

Comment author: Sniffnoy 12 August 2010 11:00:56PM 0 points [-]

Why is all that physics necessary? I'm not seeing it.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 13 August 2010 07:00:05AM 0 points [-]

Practical examples. Not many people are going to plough through abstract mathematics without them.