4 ms·
> Take two apples, add two more apples, you have four apples. To whom? To other apples? Intelligent observer which is required to relate absolutely unrelated a
by lngnmn 9y ago
> Take two apples, add two more apples, you have four apples.
To whom? To other apples? Intelligent observer which is required to relate absolutely unrelated apples together is a most recent innovation. Atomic structures, to the contrary, are self-sufficient and could be matched without any observer whatsoever. Do you realize the subtle difference?
Molecular biology does not count, have no timers and obviously does not compute probabilities. It relies on pattern matching and message passing so to speak and feed back loops. It is an analog universe, like a clock.
One more time. There is no way to establish proper causation from mere observations without a proper rigorous scientific method. The whole human knowledge is based on this statement. Religions has been overthrown by it. This is the most important achievement of whole human philosophy. And Bayesians is just a sect. ;)
- lngnmn 9y agoA friend of mine asked me to clarify a bit and to cut out my silly jokes. The main question of Eastern philosophy (What is real? What is?) is way too far away from being answered adequately. One very old and very naive view is that nothing is real, everything is constructed by the mind. The question is - what is mental and what is real and how to get them apart. Out of this comes a few simple notions, such that, while math and probabilities in particular could be used to produce a model of what is, nevertheless they cannot be the causes of phenomena because math and probabilities does not exist outside people's minds. Of course there are certain physical constants - an angle between atoms in a water molecule, but there is no way a cell could measure it. It happens that other molecules assume certain positions in a water solution, but there is no notion of an angle anywhere. It requires an intelligent observer, which isn't here. Same logic applies to numbers. Yes, of course, two apples and two apples would he be four apples, but there is no one to notice this at a molecular level. So, cells does not count. They pattern match, because it requires no observer and interpreter. These notions could be generalised to a simple rule of thumb - do not try to establish causation with mere abstractions of the mind - they aren't here. Numbers, leave alone probabilities, are abstractions. Out of abstractions one construct simulations. But simulation is not reality the same way a map is not the territory. Now about logic. It is a path from what is real to what is real, each step of which is validated by all the previous steps. It is a result of a domain-specific heuristic-guided search process, where a heuristic not choices the next step, but validates the current position by tracing it back to what is real. Nothing much to see here. Just applied Eastern philosophy. To arrive at what is an observer with all his mental constructs has to be removed, similar to removal of the illusory self which obstructs reality. It is an ancient hack.