Will_Pearson comments on Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical? - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 April 2008 07:06AM

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Comment author: Will_Pearson 17 April 2008 09:53:00PM 0 points [-]

"Anybody who is proposing we know all the fundamentals of a field should arouse your instant suspicions - this is a hubris from which men have fallen every time they've mounted it. It's a very seductive idea to those who chase order. It is also a mindkiller."

I'm not too worried about fundementals myself. I just want something that makes sense of the experimental data that I have heard of.

I can see why Eliezer is. He is trying to prove things about a computer system (whether it is FAI or a machine to build FAI), for this he needs to have a firm basis to prove from, else his system might be susceptible to side band attacks or errors outside the proof system (like the "proven" secure systems described here ). Since he thinks he might be having a discontinuous affect on the whole human race, you can see why he is careful.

I consider a hard and fast take off unlikely as their are a lot more potential paths of systems that are flawed and get stuck or self-annihilate, than paths that lead to transcendence quickly if such things are even physically possible.