Damien_R._S.
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Damien_R._S. has not written any posts yet.
Damien_R._S. has not written any posts yet.
Sweet! I'd lost a copy of my exact syllogistic wording.
I hate that Planck quote. It's full of "truthiness". I think it is in fact falsified by the histories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and continental drift/plate tectonics. I'm pretty confident about the latter, trusting Hofstadter's class lectures more for the former two.
The story has problems, and it's not clear how it's meant to be taken.
Way 1: we should believe the SAI, being a SAI, and so everyone will in fact be happier within a week. This creates cognitive dissonance, what with the scenario seeming flawed to us, and putting us in a position of rejecting a scenario that makes us happier.
Way 2: we should trust our reason, and evaluate the scenario on its own merits. This creates the cognitive dissonance of the SAI being really stupid. Yeah, being immortal and having a nice companion and good life support and protection is good, but it's a failed utopia because it's trivially... (read more)