From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Nov 01 1999 - 22:15:23 MST
hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> My ultimate point is the same one I have made in other contexts. We have
> had tremendous success througout history by removing supernatural elements
> from our explanations of the universe. Adopting the view that ETs are
> here and manipulating our world is a giant step backward. Posting to the
> web to implore ET to respond is simply a form of prayer. I don't believe
> this has any place in a modern, rationalistic approach to the universe.
I reject utterly this entire concept of rationality. What you're saying
is that the historical development of human opinion, in which "progress
in successfully modeling and manipulating the Universe" was covariant
with "the change from models that attribute patterns to the desires of
powerful entities, to models that attribute patterns to the interaction
of lower-level elements", is allowed to impose a constraint on external
reality that prevents powerful entities from influencing our world.
Maybe people who are already silly to begin with can't accept the idea
that this whole Universe might be a computer simulation run by
interventionist sysops without losing all track of reality, but as far
as I'm concerned, in the event that the Matrix Hypothesis was proven,
I'd simply go on thinking the same way as always. If I don't believe in
miracle X, it's because miracle X is easier to explain by reference to
human legend then by reference to intervention, not because intervention
is absolutely impossible. Think relative probabilities, not proof.
Only weak minds demand certainty.
If there's a Power hovering behind the moon, I don't have to abandon the
reductionist paradigm. I just say the low-level elements making up this
Universe are organized in the shape of a Power hovering behind the moon,
for understandable historical reasons having to do with the previous
development of intelligent life. And if the Power starts playing games
with the planet, presumably due to persistent initial programming, then
the behavior of the Power is explicable in terms of the evolved
psychology and last-minute social interaction of the race that created it.
Known memetic forces impose one set of probabilities on an explanation
for an account of a miracle; known facts about the world (i.e. WWII was
not prevented, nor is child abuse) and probabilities about the racial
psychology of the initiating race impose another set of probabilities on
interventionist explanations for an account of a miracle. I don't see
where the equations break down.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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