[extropy-chat] Reductionism

[Jef Allbright]

Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:

> Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
>>
>>>
>>> > Furthermore, I don't believe that you fully and consistently believe
>>> > this either.
>>>
>>> Them's fighting words, Samantha.
>>
>>
>> By this I mean that you too make and must make use of various tools 
>> and assumptions that you cannot fully reduce in order to function at 
>> all in the world.    There is no need to fight over an obvious 
>> truth.  :-)
>
>
> Name me a single concept I must use, for which I cannot give an 
> experimentally testable consequence of its presence or absence.
>
Small child to parent:  "Why *can't* I cross the big road if I'm careful?"
Teenage daughter to parent: "Why *can't* I spend the night at my 
boyfriend's house"
Aspiring young genius to the worldwide community:  "Why don't you 
understand that *my* ideas are humanity's best hope for survival"
Superhuman AI to dependent humans:  "Because I said so."

- Jef