Could you share some of the main character’s thought process in ruling out the “narrative-driven simulation” hypothesis in favor of the anthropic one? I still would see that as the most likely conclusion were I in the main character’s shoes, since it would require a much simpler root universe than a world with trans-universal magic spells and resistance to reductionism.
If I’m ruining the point of the story, though, then I’m OK with giving up this line of questioning. Some suspension of disbelief (and departure from Bayesianism in characters) is certainly warranted even in rationalist fiction...
Well, since the beginning, not one unusual thing has ever happened. Now in Aerhien’s world, magic works, which is in fact unusual, and in reality has never happened. However, by writing the story, I counterfactually postulated, within the story confines, that magic has happened, implying that magic is not unusual. So the hero, within the story confines, does not see anything unusual about it either.
That is, along with the counterfactual “magic is not unusual” I also postulated the reflective levels “magic is not perceived as unusual”, “magic not being perceived as unusual is not seen as an unusual thought process”, etc.
Fair enough; I don’t want to ruin a fine story by nitpicking the protagonist’s prior. I was mainly wondering whether there was some bit of evidence I was missing, or whether this was just part of the necessary suspension of disbelief. I’m fine with it being the latter.
Could you share some of the main character’s thought process in ruling out the “narrative-driven simulation” hypothesis in favor of the anthropic one? I still would see that as the most likely conclusion were I in the main character’s shoes, since it would require a much simpler root universe than a world with trans-universal magic spells and resistance to reductionism.
If I’m ruining the point of the story, though, then I’m OK with giving up this line of questioning. Some suspension of disbelief (and departure from Bayesianism in characters) is certainly warranted even in rationalist fiction...
Well, since the beginning, not one unusual thing has ever happened. Now in Aerhien’s world, magic works, which is in fact unusual, and in reality has never happened. However, by writing the story, I counterfactually postulated, within the story confines, that magic has happened, implying that magic is not unusual. So the hero, within the story confines, does not see anything unusual about it either.
That is, along with the counterfactual “magic is not unusual” I also postulated the reflective levels “magic is not perceived as unusual”, “magic not being perceived as unusual is not seen as an unusual thought process”, etc.
Fair enough; I don’t want to ruin a fine story by nitpicking the protagonist’s prior. I was mainly wondering whether there was some bit of evidence I was missing, or whether this was just part of the necessary suspension of disbelief. I’m fine with it being the latter.