Eugine_Nier comments on The Fabric of Real Things - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 October 2012 02:11AM

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Comment author: handoflixue 12 October 2012 08:37:27PM 1 point [-]

I had assumed the question was "a universe where an event can have out-connection but not in-connection" (and the consciousness one was about having an in-connection but no out-connection).

In a universe with NO connections, you wouldn't get patterns, much less emergent patterns - no atoms, no stars, no planets, no life, not even internet!

Multiple segregated causal networks would be multiple realities (I think the simplest reference would be to think about two different books or virtual worlds, although there's actually still some connection there)

Individual events which have out-connections but not in-connections, by contrast, seems like a fairly interesting question to explore. Why DO we assume that all evens have in-connections? Why not just assume the weather is because Zeus is mad, and Zeus' emotions are beyond the ken of mortal minds?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 13 October 2012 05:33:34AM 0 points [-]

Individual events which have out-connections but not in-connections, by contrast, seems like a fairly interesting question to explore. Why DO we assume that all evens have in-connections?

Not all, the past doesn't have in-connections and the future doesn't have out-connections.

Comment author: handoflixue 15 October 2012 05:53:06PM 0 points [-]

Can you explain what you mean by that? I tend to model past events as having even-further-past causes. I definitely model future events as having even-farther-future ramifications. So they'd seem to generally have both in and out.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 16 October 2012 03:42:48AM 0 points [-]

I was referring to the past (or future) as a whole.