michael_vassar3 comments on Math is Subjunctively Objective - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 July 2008 11:06AM

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Comment author: michael_vassar3 25 July 2008 06:08:26PM 2 points [-]

I'm not convinced that it makes sense to talk about visualizing two dots and three dots that are six dots. I would say that the physical event of visualizing two dots and of visualizing three more dots IS the event "visualizing five dots". There is then a separate event, lets call it "describing what you have visualized", that can be mistaken. You can visualize five dots and as a result of interference in the information flow to your mouth end up saying "I see six dots". For that matter, you can visualize five dots, and as a result of either noise or the fact that it is hot out and other parts of your brain are competing to control your vocal apparatus, end up saying "it sure is hot out" instead of "I see five dots". In either of these cases you would say that the vocalization is not about the visualization, but rather, about the other mental and physical processes that caused it. In that case, why not say that "I see six dots" is about your visualization AND the neutrinos, not about the visualization.