komponisto comments on Common sense as a prior - Less Wrong
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Scott Aaronson was already reading along to it as it was published. If we paid David Deutsch to read it, I expect him to just say, "Yeah, that's all basically correct" which wouldn't be very in-depth.
From those who already disagree with MWI, I would expect more in the way of awful amateur epistemology delivered with great confidence. Then those who already had their trust in a sane world broken will nod and say "I expected no better." Others will say, "How can you possibly disregard the word of so great a physicist? Perhaps he knows something you don't!" - though they will not be able to formalize the awful amateur epistemology - and nod among themselves about how Yudkowsky failed to anticipate that so strong a reply might be made (it should be presumed to be a very strong reply since a great physicist made it, even if they can't 100% follow themselves why it is a great refutation, or would not have believed the same words so much from a street performer). And so both will emerge strengthened in their prior beliefs, which isn't much of a test.
Scott Aaronson is not a physicist!
I'd expect him to notice math errors and he specializes in the aspect of QM that I talk about, regardless of job titles.
Still, it diminishes the effect.
Nnnoo it doesn't, IMO.
The effect of authoritative validation? The difference between professional physicist qua physicist, as opposed to quantum-computing-aware computer scientist, would not be small. Even if Scott Aaronson happens to know quantum mechanics as well as Feynman, it's difficult to validate that authority.
Job titles aside, I think you had an incorrect model of his intellectual background, and how much he knows about certain subjects (e.g. general relativity) as contrasted with others (e.g. P and NP). Also (therefore) an incorrect model of how others would view your citation of him as an authority.
That said, I think you were right to think of him as an authority here and expect him to notice any important errors in your QM sequence.