Vaniver comments on Don't You Care If It Works? - Part 1 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Jacobian 29 July 2015 02:32PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 30 July 2015 04:38:24PM *  2 points [-]

I still don't understand what did Eliezer mean by "knowable".

It's one thing to say "there are multiple competing interpretations," another to say "there is a simplest interpretation, and other, more burdensome variants," and still another to be able to point to the calculations that determine which explanation is simplest. I don't poll people on their interpretations of QM, but I am of the impression that many people who have opinions on QM interpretations aren't even aware that there's math that is useful for comparing interpretations. (Hence them not realizing that it's "knowable.")

There's also the point about lightness, and using the most likely explanation as the default explanation, instead of saying "sure, it's more likely, but not so much more likely enough that my pet theory is totally unacceptable in comparison, so I'm sticking with my pet theory."

Comment author: Lumifer 30 July 2015 05:04:21PM *  2 points [-]

aren't even aware that there's math that is useful for comparing interpretations

Notably, that "math" (and it's not just math) did not convince large chunks of the physics community -- people who are quite comfortable with numbers and who certainly know the "knowable" issue.

But this is an endless debate and it probably would be best not to step into the morass :-)