Shane, true. “What supports the world” (and the consequent support mechanisms for the turtles) is the ‘wrong question’, so to speak. But the question we set out to answer was “What shape is the world?”. Not even “Is the world flat?”. Glossing over the myriad of Eliezer’s posts (I swear, I read them dilligently! Though I am neither a physicist, nor for that matter a reductionist), they add up to a pyramid of straw men.
Take this particular point of ‘Me’ vs. ‘Physics’. The answer one takes away from this post is that I am a subset of Physics. Fair enough. Unfortunately, the question asked is not ‘Me’ vs. ‘Physics’. The question is on free will. The answer to that, at least from what little I can glean from Eliezer’s insightful writings, is supposed to be, “Free will? That is the wrong question. Since reality is physically and fundamentally probabalistic, there is a multititude of options in a given range whose endpoints are bound by the laws of Physics. And further since you are a part of that very reality and since you are also governed by the same probabilistic amplitudes, there is a computable and assignable number for the probability that each of the above options can be realised” which paraphrased means “no answer” or paraphrased differently can mean “Yup. You got a choice to take a chance. Odds ain’t good though.” Absolutely true, no doubt. But like I said, straw men. More importanlt, does not decidely negate or affirm the question “do I have free will”?
Shane, true. “What supports the world” (and the consequent support mechanisms for the turtles) is the ‘wrong question’, so to speak. But the question we set out to answer was “What shape is the world?”. Not even “Is the world flat?”. Glossing over the myriad of Eliezer’s posts (I swear, I read them dilligently! Though I am neither a physicist, nor for that matter a reductionist), they add up to a pyramid of straw men.
Take this particular point of ‘Me’ vs. ‘Physics’. The answer one takes away from this post is that I am a subset of Physics. Fair enough. Unfortunately, the question asked is not ‘Me’ vs. ‘Physics’. The question is on free will. The answer to that, at least from what little I can glean from Eliezer’s insightful writings, is supposed to be, “Free will? That is the wrong question. Since reality is physically and fundamentally probabalistic, there is a multititude of options in a given range whose endpoints are bound by the laws of Physics. And further since you are a part of that very reality and since you are also governed by the same probabilistic amplitudes, there is a computable and assignable number for the probability that each of the above options can be realised” which paraphrased means “no answer” or paraphrased differently can mean “Yup. You got a choice to take a chance. Odds ain’t good though.” Absolutely true, no doubt. But like I said, straw men. More importanlt, does not decidely negate or affirm the question “do I have free will”?