It seems to me that Eliezer is basically correct on the physics. It seems to me that you and SU3 looked at a big jump and instead of trying to figure out what he was trying to say, even to the extent of following the links on the reddit thread, just rounded it off to the nearest error you had a counterexample at hand for.
I think “sneer” is a pretty appropriate description.
I have seen some criticism of the example that engages with it, and maybe it would be best to say that it is not a legitimate argument because it relies on fragile things holding when a closely related fragile thing has shattered. But that is a very different criticism.
I don’t see how Eliezer is correct here. Conservation of energy just isn’t deeply related to the deeper structure of quantum mechanics in the way Harry suggests. It’s not related to unitarity, so you can’t do weird non-unitary things.
What precisely is Eliezer basically correct about on the physics?
It is true that non-unitary gates allow you to break physics in interesting ways. It is absolutely not true that violating conservation of energy will lead to a nonunitary gate. Eliezer even eventually admits (or at least admits that he ‘may have misunderstood’) an error in the physics here. (see this subthread).
This isn’t really a minor physics mistake. Unitarity really has nothing at all to do with energy conservation.
If you aren’t interested in engaging with me, then why did you respond to my thread? Especially when the content of your post seems to be “No you’re wrong, and I don’t want to explain why I think so.”?
It is important to make disagreements common knowledge. That would justify a comment of the form you suggest. That is, however, not the comment I left.
It seems to me that Eliezer is basically correct on the physics. It seems to me that you and SU3 looked at a big jump and instead of trying to figure out what he was trying to say, even to the extent of following the links on the reddit thread, just rounded it off to the nearest error you had a counterexample at hand for.
I think “sneer” is a pretty appropriate description.
I have seen some criticism of the example that engages with it, and maybe it would be best to say that it is not a legitimate argument because it relies on fragile things holding when a closely related fragile thing has shattered. But that is a very different criticism.
I don’t see how Eliezer is correct here. Conservation of energy just isn’t deeply related to the deeper structure of quantum mechanics in the way Harry suggests. It’s not related to unitarity, so you can’t do weird non-unitary things.
What precisely is Eliezer basically correct about on the physics?
It is true that non-unitary gates allow you to break physics in interesting ways. It is absolutely not true that violating conservation of energy will lead to a nonunitary gate. Eliezer even eventually admits (or at least admits that he ‘may have misunderstood’) an error in the physics here. (see this subthread).
This isn’t really a minor physics mistake. Unitarity really has nothing at all to do with energy conservation.
By that standard of admission, “Gauss the Sane” admitted that Eliezer was correct.
I was very vague because I was not interested in engaging with you.
If you aren’t interested in engaging with me, then why did you respond to my thread? Especially when the content of your post seems to be “No you’re wrong, and I don’t want to explain why I think so.”?
It is important to make disagreements common knowledge. That would justify a comment of the form you suggest. That is, however, not the comment I left.