shminux comments on Uncritical Supercriticality - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 December 2007 04:40PM

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Comment author: shminux 07 November 2012 08:12:30PM 1 point [-]

Nature doesn't have laws

Well obviously, once you accept that everything else follows. What I'm asking is why you think that, give that it looks very lawful: objects fall down, energy is conserved, if a prediction is true on Monday it stays true on Tuesday, every exception to known rules turns out to obey deeper rules with practical consequences we can exploit. Why can't we just say "The thing has looked absolutely lawful for millenia, case closed"?

This would be a good time to define what you mean by a physical law. Likely it is not the same as what Abd means. I am guessing that you assign some meaning to this term other than "it's a useful mathematical model for humans to explain and predict some of the stuff they see sometimes". I'm guessing further that Abd concludes from your implied (and possibly misunderstood) definition that if physical laws are guiding "reality" than they are not reducible to quarks and leptons themselves, which does call the whole idea of reductionism in question.

I'd suggest clarifying this concept first before arguing about it.

Comment author: Abd 08 November 2012 12:37:58AM 0 points [-]

Thanks, shminux. Yes, you understood me. I do get the sense, though, that MixedNuts is getting it. We'll see.