You ask me to compare two ways of saying something:
that there exists at T1 some set of facts S describing the state of the world (including my mind), and that E2a|b and E1a|b both depend on S
that E2a|b exerts an acausal atemporal influence on E1a|b
What, you ask, does that second formulation buy us? My answer, of course, is that the second is more concise and it avoids mentioning either T1 or S (good, among other reasons, because there might be multiple times T1, T2, and T3, as well as state vectors S1, S2, and S3 at those times). The second formulation is even more economical if you leave off that extraneous word "atemporal".
What you pay for this economy is a prior climb up a pretty rugged learning curve. Is it worth it? It is hard to say at this point. However, I should point out the irony that I have cast myself in the role of a defender of all this "acausal" mumbo-jumbo; ironic because I usually play your role - a fierce skeptic of the local zeitgeist and defender of the old-fashioned, orthodox approach.
(nods) Well said; that makes sense. Thank you.
- This thread has run its course. You will find newer threads in the discussion section.
Another discussion thread - the fourth - has reached the (arbitrary?) 500 comments threshold, so it's time for a new thread for Eliezer Yudkowsky's widely-praised Harry Potter fanfic.
Most of the paratext and fan-made resources are listed on Mr. LessWrong's author page. There is also AdeleneDawner's collection of most of the previously-published Author's Notes.
Older threads: one, two, three, four. By tag.
Newer threads are in the Discussion section, starting from Part 6.
Spoiler policy as suggested by Unnamed and approved by Eliezer, me, and at least three other upmodders:
It would also be quite sensible and welcome to continue the practice of declaring at the top of your post which chapters you are about to discuss, especially for newly-published ones, so that people who haven't yet seen them can stop reading in time.