Phil_Goetz4 comments on The Design Space of Minds-In-General - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 June 2008 06:37AM

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Comment author: Phil_Goetz4 25 June 2008 04:23:22PM 7 points [-]

The larger point, that the space of possible minds is very large, is correct.

The argument used involving ATP synthase is invalid. ATP synthase is a building block. Life on earth is all built using roughly the same set of Legos. But Legos are very versatile.

Here is an analogous argument that is obviously incorrect:

People ask me, "What is world literature like? What desires and ambitions, and comedies and tragedies, do people write about in other languages?"

And lo, I say unto them, "You have asked me a trick question."

"the" is a determiner which is identical in English poems, novels, and legal documents. It has not changed significantly since the rise of modern English in the 17th century. It's is something that every English document has in common.

Any two works of literature from different countries might be less similar to each other than Hamlet is to a restaurant menu.