Alien Truth
October 2022 If there were intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, they'd share certain truths in common with us. The truths of mathematics would be the same, because they're true by definition. Ditto for the truths of physics; the mass of a carbon atom would be the same on their planet. But I think we'd share other truths with aliens besides the truths of math and physics, and that it would be worthwhile to think about what these might be. For example, I think we'd share the principle that a controlled experiment testing some hypothesis entitles us to have proportionally increased belief in it. It seems fairly likely, too, that it would be true for aliens that one can get better at something by practicing. We'd probably share Occam's razor. There doesn't seem anything specifically human about any of these ideas. We can only guess, of course. We can't say for sure what forms intelligent life might take. Nor is it my goal here to explore that question, interesting though
Alien Truth --> October 2022 If there were intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, they'd share certain truths in common with us. The truths of mathematics would be the same, because they're true by definition. Ditto for the truths of physics; the mass of a carbon atom would be the same on their planet. But I think we'd share other truths with aliens besides the truths of math and physics, and that it would be worthwhile to think about what these might be. For example, I think we'd share the principle that a controlled experiment testing some hypothesis entitles us to have proportionally
related reading
- The Fermi Paradox - Wait But Whywaitbutwhy.com
- Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences) — LessWronglesswrong.com
- The Useful Idea of Truth — LessWronglesswrong.com
- Fake thinking and real thinking - Joe Carlsmithjoecarlsmith.com
- The Beginning of Infinity, Part 1nav.al
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- Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences) — LessWronglesswrong.com
- The Four Theories of Truth As a Method for Critical Thinking - Commoncogcommoncog.com
- Forms of life, forms of mind | Dr. Michael Levin | Are we too part of a greater collective intelligence? How would we know?thoughtforms.life
- Dark Side Epistemology — LessWronglesswrong.com
- Why Smart People Believe Stupid Thingsgurwinder.substack.com
- How to live an intellectually rich lifesubstack.com