James2 comments on "Science" as Curiosity-Stopper - Less Wrong

54 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2007 08:04PM

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Comment author: James2 05 September 2007 01:29:15PM 1 point [-]

I'm shocked that you linked to that YouTube clip about the sun and the moon going around the earth. The reason is that this question tests *precisely* password-style knowledge. You can assume the sun goes around the earth and make the exact same calculations that you can if you assume the earth goes around the sun. The reason is that "goes around" is not a physically meaningful concept (by relativity if you wish). The question is as meaningful as asking whether countries in the north are above those in the south, and knowing the answer says more about your educational history than it does about whether you actually know something real about the world.