Vladimir_Nesov comments on Do we have it too easy? - Less Wrong

27 Post author: Klao 02 November 2011 01:53AM

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Comment author: shminux 02 November 2011 03:20:27AM 6 points [-]

One morning, walking to the train station, thinking about something I read, my thoughts wondered to how this all affects my faith. And I noticed myself flinching away, and thought “Isn't this what Eliezer calls "flinching away"?” I didn't resolve my doubts there and then, but there was no turning back and couple of days later I was an atheist.

I recall a Gom Jabbar spell cast on a hapless teacher in a similar circumstance.

Jokes aside, some of what EY preaches here IS WRONG, since there is absolutely no way he is right about everything. If someone tells you otherwise, they are treating EY as a cult leader, not a teacher. So, ask yourself: what if the idea you just thought over and internalized is wrong? Because, chances are, at least one of them is. If there is a topic in the sequences you consider yourself an expert in, start there. It might be his approach to free will, or to quantum mechanics, or to the fun theory, or to dark arts, or...

Until you have proven EY wrong at least once on this forum, you are not ready for rationality.

(Hope this is not too dark for you.)

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 02 November 2011 01:20:03PM *  4 points [-]

(Note that whole math textbooks can be essentially correct. Minor errors can usually be corrected without affecting anything else.)

Comment author: betterthanwell 02 November 2011 04:16:13PM *  7 points [-]

While this is true, most math [1] textbooks generally don't provide verbose treatments of controversial, unresolved, possibly untestable meta-problems [2], (where the validity of the conclusions crucially depend on previous controversial, unresolved, possibly untestable meta-problems.)

[1] String theory textbooks provide a possible anti-example.
[2] Metaphysics, metacognition, metaprogramming.

Comment author: bekkerd 04 November 2011 05:39:41AM 3 points [-]

[1] String theory textbooks provide a possible anti-example.

I can assure you that the maths in a string theory textbook will still be essentially correct.