From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Sat Dec 08 2001 - 23:45:03 MST
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
> Jeff Bone wrote:
> >
> > First rule of science fiction: you're only allowed one miracle. You've
> > already claimed yours (i.e. Friendliness) Eli, you aren't allowed any more.
>
> Fortunately, this is reality
Sorry, Eli, but suppositions about the possibility of things like Banach-Tarski
gyroscopes, grounded in principles like the Axiom of Choice, *are* science
fiction --- not science, and certainly not reality. Your scenario was a piece of
speculative fiction, extrapolating from your understanding of science --- i.e.,
science fiction. If you propose to use science fiction to support the
plausibility of your suppositions about possible reality --- a valid technique,
as science fiction is the laboratory of possibility --- then one should attempt
to adhere to the rules of the form so as not to strain credulity farther than
necessary. But go ahead --- your claims are only proving my point.
;-)
Let's be clear about what I'm saying: the Singularity hypothesis is a credible
extrapolation of observable, measurable trends; the Wandering Flame and friends
are fanciful inventions. Positioning them on the same level of extrapolative
plausibility sullies the Singularity hypothesis. I assume that you understand
this given the HUMOR tag in your subject line, let's leave it at that.
jb
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