Ben_Jones comments on Use the Try Harder, Luke - Less Wrong

59 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 October 2008 10:52AM

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Comment author: Ben_Jones 05 October 2008 09:41:21AM 2 points [-]

In the conceptually impossible possible world where the Force exists in the first place, midichlorians are a foreign invader in the simplest explanation of the Force's structure. You want to move something, therefore it moves.

Fascinating. I'd have thought that a chance to render the Force into a physical instantiation would have been music to your ears.

Magnets can pick up paperclips even when you don't know about electromagnetism. However, to fully understand the magnet, you need a theory of electrons. If you want to use the Force to move something, you don't need to know about midichlorians. However, a good physicalist / reductionist would surely know and feel that the Force should be the result of a physical thing in the universe. As far as I'm concerned 'his midichlorian count is off the charts' and 'the Force is strong with this one' are pretty much synonymous, and I don't have any beef with either statement. I didn't need a physicalist explanation of the Force, but I'm not going to be upset if one is presented. Midichlorians slotted in fine for me. And they're still a good explanation for:

- Strength with the Force being hereditary - Your potential level being, to an extent, predestined (very Star Warsy) - People being able to move shit with their minds