I read the Sequences as they came out and went back and read those that were out before I stumbled upon LW. They were in many ways, eye-opening, except for the Quantum Physics sequence, which I find superfluous, unnecessary, and, as someone with a Physics PhD, not very accurate. I have raised the ire of Eliezer here when I expressed this opinion quite vocally. I still think that it can be summarized in one sentence like “consider all possibilities and assign your best guess of probabilities to them”. There is no need for quantum at all, especially given that QM can be simulated on a classical computer, at worst with exponential slowdown.
My favorite sequence is, by far, Human guide to words. I am not so fond of the Map/Territory ontology though, being a “it’s maps all the way down” anti-realist (or post-rationalist, as some tend to define themselves). But everything that is related to cognitive biases and how to notice them in oneself is a must-read.
It may have been a lot of more Bayesian quantum physics interpretation but I still found it enlighting for a layman to understand non locality and entanglement. If you would be kind to recommend some literature or even videos you found great about QM? (Which doesn’t take the axiomatical belief that is ComPlex or ComPlicated which is the bad label they got that Eliezer mentioned)
There are definitely cool parts in that sequence, as you said. Nonlocality, entanglement, the Liouville’s theorem and some other concepts are presented lucidly and understandably, and with the Bayesian view. They are other parts, that are basically advocacy of Many Worlds, that are much weaker, but still mostly fun to read. It’s just none of it is really needed for learning rationality.
I am not a good authority on popular literature about QM, as I had learned it academically from undergrad and grad-level texts, and it’s hard to go back to my previous self to do a fair evaluation of a popular book or a video series.
I read the Sequences as they came out and went back and read those that were out before I stumbled upon LW. They were in many ways, eye-opening, except for the Quantum Physics sequence, which I find superfluous, unnecessary, and, as someone with a Physics PhD, not very accurate. I have raised the ire of Eliezer here when I expressed this opinion quite vocally. I still think that it can be summarized in one sentence like “consider all possibilities and assign your best guess of probabilities to them”. There is no need for quantum at all, especially given that QM can be simulated on a classical computer, at worst with exponential slowdown.
My favorite sequence is, by far, Human guide to words. I am not so fond of the Map/Territory ontology though, being a “it’s maps all the way down” anti-realist (or post-rationalist, as some tend to define themselves). But everything that is related to cognitive biases and how to notice them in oneself is a must-read.
It may have been a lot of more Bayesian quantum physics interpretation but I still found it enlighting for a layman to understand non locality and entanglement. If you would be kind to recommend some literature or even videos you found great about QM? (Which doesn’t take the axiomatical belief that is ComPlex or ComPlicated which is the bad label they got that Eliezer mentioned)
There are definitely cool parts in that sequence, as you said. Nonlocality, entanglement, the Liouville’s theorem and some other concepts are presented lucidly and understandably, and with the Bayesian view. They are other parts, that are basically advocacy of Many Worlds, that are much weaker, but still mostly fun to read. It’s just none of it is really needed for learning rationality.
I am not a good authority on popular literature about QM, as I had learned it academically from undergrad and grad-level texts, and it’s hard to go back to my previous self to do a fair evaluation of a popular book or a video series.
Any you’d recommend?
Definitely Griffiths Quantum Mechanics for undergrad. Lucid, clear, concise exposition. Also easily found online.
Thank you! Found the book in a minute, looked at the first few pages, and indeed they were a pleasure to read.