[ExI] Brain in vat claims to probably not be brain in vat

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2015-09-04 00:41, Dan wrote:
> http://www.springer.com/home?SGWID=0-0-1003-0-0&aqId=2902585&download=1&checkval=8f6e9e80296929a19a5892ebf06ad5cb

Ah, those brains in vats. Always showing up in epistemology, taking the 
jobs from us honest Boltzmann brains.

I like the paper. It actually gives a good reason not to believe in 
weird existential risk theories (maybe the LHC makes black holes when it 
is cooled too much? And somebody speaks Swiss-German nearby? And that 
person is red-haired?) since such theories also predict a too wide range 
of phenomena (if temperature, language and haircolor matters for 
particle experiments, we ought to see a lot of random things when we do 
them rather than consistent physics up to 20 TeV and then *bang* when Dr 
Rothaarig shows up.)


-- 
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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