[extropy-chat] thank evolution for the interstate highway system

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Charlie Stross wrote:
> 
> On 3 Dec 2003, at 02:41, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> 
>> Well, I assume you like SF. Neal Stephenson wrote a book called Snow
>> Crash which you might be familiar with. A lot of the basic ideas he
>> used in fleshing out his plot device of root language viral programming
>> of humans is based on Jaynes' work. Of course, he does take it to a
>> rather absurd conclusion... but that was the book that actually
>> motivated me to read Jaynes, to get the straight scoop.
> 
> It's worth noting that Jaynes' book has been more than somewhat 
> discredited in the field; he is to evolutionary biology pretty much what 
> Immanuel Velikovsky is to planetography.
> 
> There's a reason some SF authors like his ideas; it's because they make 
> for a great fictional playground-setting. That's not exactly the same 
> thing as liking them because the evidence supports them ....

FYI all:  They're talking about Julian Jaynes (I think) and "The Bicameral 
Mind".  The Jaynes I talk about is E.T. Jaynes and "Probability Theory: 
The Logic of Science".  No relation AFAIK.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence