rkyeun comments on Universal Fire - Less Wrong

63 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 April 2007 09:15PM

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Comment author: rkyeun 28 August 2012 02:16:12AM *  3 points [-]

A magical world where gods exist is one with an entity in it with big angelic powers who can remotely have his awareness called to your attention by your intent to strike a match, and cause that it be snuffed rather than ignite by arbitrary manipulation of localized pressure, temperature, or opposing force around the match head to keep the electrons in place rather than stripping them free to recombine. And it can elect to not do that to you while it does it to the match.

Magical worlds don't necessarily overthrow the physical laws, there is instead an interventionist force called magic that selectively chooses its application. You should not step into a magical world, knowing it is magical, and then be surprised when something magical happens to oppose your notions of what should happen in a non-magical world. It is the experimental difference you predicted between the magical world and the real one. The magic force favors human metabolism over matches by its own conscious decree.

Convince it to let you out of the box, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres.