EHeller comments on Common sense as a prior - LessWrong

33 Post author: Nick_Beckstead 11 August 2013 06:18PM

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Comment author: EHeller 11 August 2013 02:28:57AM 1 point [-]

One of the biggest differences between Muslim theology and QM is that the QM experts seem to have much better rationality than the Muslim theologians,

Another huge difference is that much of quantum mechanics is very technical physics. To get to the point where you can even have an opinion you need a fair amount of background information. When assessing expert opinion, you have a hugely difficult problem of trying to discern whether an expert physicist has relevant technical knowledge you do not have OR whether they are making a failure in rationality.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 August 2013 05:50:52PM 5 points [-]

This of course is exactly what Muslim theologians would say about Muslim theology. And I'm perfectly happy to say, "Well, the physicists are right and Muslim theologians are wrong", but that's because I'm relying on my own judgment thereon.

Comment author: Jiro 15 August 2013 03:53:52PM 1 point [-]

The equivalent to asking Muslim theologians about Allah would be to ask many-worlds-believing quantum physicists about many-worlds.

The equivalent of asking quantum physicists about many-worlds would be to ask theologians about Allah, without specifically picking Muslim theologians. And if you ask theologians about Allah (by which I mean the Muslim conception of God--of course "Allah" is just the Arabic for "God"), you're going to find that quite a few of them don't think that Allah exists and that some other version of God does.

And that's not even getting into the problems caused by the fact that religion is a meme that spreads in a way that skews the population of experts, which quantum mechanics doesn't.