endoself comments on Identity Isn't In Specific Atoms - Less Wrong

24 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 April 2008 04:55AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 29 May 2011 07:17:51AM *  0 points [-]

Relying upon Wikipedia is not advised here. QM and GR, if you stick them together, entail everything.

I'm confused how you got this out of the above -- I didn't mean to imply that QM+GR was consistent. They need fixing, and the article supports this viewpoint. Grandparent asked for citations; the relevant article has several. I didn't see the earlier comments between you and endoself, because they're not in this thread, but in another, for some reason. For what it's worth, I think you're misinterpreting statements intended for poetic effect.

So while endoself is wrong when he claims QM isn't inconsistent with GR, you're equally wrong for believing EY supports QM over GR, when in fact it's incredibly likely (based on everything we know about EY's stance on updating) that for now EY supports QM when it talks about small things and GR when it talks about big things, and that if some better theory would come along that explained the evidence better, EY would update to follow that.

Of course, I can't speak for him, but I claim the above is a more reasonable interpretation of the state of affairs.

EDIT: So there's a simpler litmus test to apply here -- has EY directly said anything about GR? If so, what evidence is leading you to believe he denies it?

Comment author: endoself 29 May 2011 08:50:30AM 0 points [-]

endoself is wrong when he claims QM isn't inconsistent with GR

I interpreted "QM is inconsistent with GR" as stating that GR cannot be quantized. This is usually what is mentioned in such discussions, as GR is much harder, maybe even impossible, to quantize as compared to other theories. There are very large advantages to only using the word 'consistent' in its precise mathematical definition, so I will do that from now on.