Kip, I think you’ve misinterpreted ‘the present screens off the past’. Think of it this way: if you knew everything there was to know about one instant of a closed system, you’d be able to extrapolate forwards. Knowing about the instant ‘before’ would afford you no more knowledge. I think that’s what Eliezer’s trying to convey.
the idea of an alien/God/machine creating me five seconds ago, implanting within me a desire/value to pick up an apple, and then having the local control to act on that desire/value SCARES THE LIVING FU** OUT OF PEOPLE
It really shouldn’t. Yes, in the timeless block universe, there’s a difference between being alive for 24 years of nature and nurture, and an alien clicking you into existence. But we don’t experience the block, we experience the present. ‘Experiencing the block universe’ is probably oxymoronic. But in the two scenarios, all the quarks are in the same place. There couldn’t even be ‘two identical-looking universes’. So why would/should you act differently?
As far as I can tell, Eliezer’s reworking of free will simply says ‘physics just is, and you’re part of it, and knowing that shouldn’t change the way you act.’ ‘Fearing’ determinism (or alien intervention) doesn’t make any sense; it’s like fearing causality.
Kip, I think you’ve misinterpreted ‘the present screens off the past’. Think of it this way: if you knew everything there was to know about one instant of a closed system, you’d be able to extrapolate forwards. Knowing about the instant ‘before’ would afford you no more knowledge. I think that’s what Eliezer’s trying to convey.
the idea of an alien/God/machine creating me five seconds ago, implanting within me a desire/value to pick up an apple, and then having the local control to act on that desire/value SCARES THE LIVING FU** OUT OF PEOPLE
It really shouldn’t. Yes, in the timeless block universe, there’s a difference between being alive for 24 years of nature and nurture, and an alien clicking you into existence. But we don’t experience the block, we experience the present. ‘Experiencing the block universe’ is probably oxymoronic. But in the two scenarios, all the quarks are in the same place. There couldn’t even be ‘two identical-looking universes’. So why would/should you act differently?
As far as I can tell, Eliezer’s reworking of free will simply says ‘physics just is, and you’re part of it, and knowing that shouldn’t change the way you act.’ ‘Fearing’ determinism (or alien intervention) doesn’t make any sense; it’s like fearing causality.