ArisKatsaris comments on The Useful Idea of Truth - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (513)
Yes. I bet that if a fire happens you'll call the fire-brigade, not shout for Superman. That if you want to get something for Christmas, you'll not be writing to Santa Claus.
No matter how much one plays with words, most people, even philosophers, recognize reality as fundamentally different to fiction.
This is playing with words. "Solidity" has a macroscale meaning which isn't valid for nanoscales. That's how reality works in the macroscale and the nanoscale, and it's fiction in neither. If it was fiction then your ability to enjoy the table's solidity would be dependent on your suspension of disbelief.
The operative word here is "less". Here's a relevant Isaac Asimov quote: "When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."
You are effectively being "wronger than both of them put together"
1 and 0 aren't probabilities, but you're effectively treating a statement of 99.999999999% certainty as if it's equivalent to 0.000000000000001% certainty; just because neither of them is 0 or 1.
That's pretty much an example of "wronger than both of them put together" that Isaac Asimov described...