Rukifellth comments on More "Stupid" Questions - Less Wrong

14 Post author: NancyLebovitz 31 July 2013 09:18AM

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Comment author: Rukifellth 01 August 2013 12:51:13AM 0 points [-]

This will require careful thinking on my part- I'll get back to you in a few days. For that purpose, what are the other tests of meaningfulness?

Comment author: Oscar_Cunningham 01 August 2013 01:08:28AM 4 points [-]

The only other one I can think of at the moment is "Can the hypothesis be worded in a way that refers to only physical objects?"

See also this post: Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences).

Comment author: Rukifellth 01 August 2013 02:01:59AM 0 points [-]

It could, if we say that consciousness (I'm still not sure how that word is thought of here) is thought to be a physical object. However, (and I am saying this tentatively), I've heard of instances where particles can be made to have no distinction, where action on one particle has effect on a particle at a distance, so there is a prior example of two physical objects being the same entity despite spatial and numerical difference.

Comment author: Oscar_Cunningham 01 August 2013 09:49:51AM 3 points [-]

It could, if we say that consciousness (I'm still not sure how that word is thought of here) is thought to be a physical object.

If you don't understand consciousness then this isn't allowed.

However, (and I am saying this tentatively), I've heard of instances where particles can be made to have no distinction, where action on one particle has effect on a particle at a distance, so there is a prior example of two physical objects being the same entity despite spatial and numerical difference.

Do you think that if we had turned out to live in a purely Newtonian universe with no quantum nonsense then no-one would have proposed Open Individualism? If not then the resolution can't lie in quantum physics.