thomblake comments on The Fabric of Real Things - Less Wrong

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

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (305)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: [deleted] 16 October 2012 09:03:46PM *  1 point [-]

Maybe, though given the introduction to the article, I think the koan is about the question 'what counts as meaningful?', not 'is the universe made of causal relations'.

But, perhaps more interesting than settling the question of whether or not Eliezer thinks the universe is made of causal relations, we can ask "Is the thesis that the universe is made of causal relations inconsistant with Eliezer's (and your) views on the objectivity of causal relations?'

Given your responses, my dialectical instincts are telling me you think the answer to the above is 'Yes, they are inconsistant, and it is false that the universe is made of causal relations'. Is that so?

Comment author: thomblake 17 October 2012 01:26:52PM 0 points [-]

Given your responses, my dialectical instincts are telling me you think the answer to the above is 'Yes, they are [inconsistent], and it is false that the universe is made of causal relations'. Is that so?

Yes. I thought I actually made that explicit. At least, it's not "made of" causal relations any more than it's "made of" probability.

Comment author: [deleted] 17 October 2012 01:53:04PM *  1 point [-]

Thanks. I think Eliezer is endorsing the 'causal relations are fundamental' reading, and that this apparently conflicts with the idea that causality is the tool of a limited observer. I think he's likely to see these as reconcilable in some way. That, at any rate, is my prediction.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 18 October 2012 05:41:17AM 0 points [-]

My prediction is that he never noticed this problem before.

Comment author: chaosmosis 18 October 2012 09:02:59AM 2 points [-]

My prediction is that he will not respond to this line of criticism within the next three days.