Comment on Many Weak Arguments vs. One Relatively Strong Argument

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:03:28 GMT

Cool. Yes, many examples of #1 come to mind. As far as #2, I don't believe I had thought of this as a principle specifically.

What I meant about a single factor dominating in physics was that in most cases, even when multiple factors are at play, one of those factors matters more than all the rest such that you can ignore the rest. For example, an electron has gravitational attraction to the atomic nucleus, but this is trivial compared with the electromagnetic attraction. Similarly, the electromagnetic repulsion of the protons in the nucleus is trivial compared with the strong force holding them together. It's rare in nature to have a close competition between competing forces, at least until you get to higher-level domains like inter-agent competition.

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