Eugine_Nier comments on Causal Reference - Less Wrong

30 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 October 2012 10:12PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 October 2012 08:45:56AM 4 points [-]

Meditation:

If we can only meaningfully talk about parts of the universe that can be pinned down inside the causal graph, where do we find the fact that 2 + 2 = 4? Or did I just make a meaningless noise, there? Or if you claim that "2 + 2 = 4" isn't meaningful or true, then what alternate property does the sentence "2 + 2 = 4" have which makes it so much more useful than the sentence "2 + 2 = 3"?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 October 2012 10:33:12PM -1 points [-]

Mathematics is a lower, actually the lowest, tier.

Comment author: Gust 26 December 2012 03:11:00AM *  0 points [-]

Actually, if you think of it as affecting us, but not being affected by us, it is, in EY's words, mathematics is higher. We would be "shadows" influenced by the higher tier, but unable to affect it.

But I don't really think this line of reasoning leads anywhere.