Eliezer: I think another factor is that different kinds of answers are differently useful. If you cast your spell on the train, I might come over and ask you how you did it. I can guarantee that “science” or “technology” wouldn’t satisfy my curiousity (partly, I’m sure, because I’m a nerd and enjoy technology). But if you said, “It’s this cool device I ordered from Sharper Image for $10,000,” that would probably satisfy me, because it answers the relevant question. I can come up with mechanisms by which you could do things like that, though it would be expensive; if you tell me you bought a very expensive item, that both tells me “it fits into the types of explanation you’re familiar with” and “if you want to do this too, here’s how.”
I think that in a lot of cases, the inquiry stopper is the answer that convinces us of one of two things: either that we now know what we need to know to use the phenomenon, or that any further explanation would go over our heads and/or confuse us.
Eliezer: I think another factor is that different kinds of answers are differently useful. If you cast your spell on the train, I might come over and ask you how you did it. I can guarantee that “science” or “technology” wouldn’t satisfy my curiousity (partly, I’m sure, because I’m a nerd and enjoy technology). But if you said, “It’s this cool device I ordered from Sharper Image for $10,000,” that would probably satisfy me, because it answers the relevant question. I can come up with mechanisms by which you could do things like that, though it would be expensive; if you tell me you bought a very expensive item, that both tells me “it fits into the types of explanation you’re familiar with” and “if you want to do this too, here’s how.”
I think that in a lot of cases, the inquiry stopper is the answer that convinces us of one of two things: either that we now know what we need to know to use the phenomenon, or that any further explanation would go over our heads and/or confuse us.