Hey Erik, have you read The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by the physicist David Deutsch? He argues for a very different ending than what you believe and I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
Thanks Brad. I haven't read the book, however, I can see his fault of logic right here in the Wikipedia entry for the book, quote:
"Deutsch criticizes Jared Diamond's resource luck theories as to why the West came to dominate the other continents outlined in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. For Deutsch, the sustained creation of knowledge could have arisen anywhere and led to a beginning of infinity; it just happened to arise in Europe first. Deutsch extols the philosophical concept of optimism, where although problems are inevitable, solutions will always exist provided the right knowledge is sought out and acquired."
Once again, here we see someone who doesn't appear to understand the difference between a problem and a predicament. Is there any indication in the book that he does, in fact, understand the difference?
It's been a while since I have read it but I don't recall him demonstrating the difference between a problem and a predicament although I am sure he would readily argue humanities predicaments could be solved with the right knowledge.
Yes, he is definitely biased about humanities future.
Deutsch, when he is best, enjoys making logically correct statements that are utterly irrelevant in all practicality, such as everything that is possible is doable with the right knowledge. Great.
It doesn’t ring true that any sane person would argue here for aliens as salvation, but although you are dealing with incontrovertible data, the universe also is a place for miracles. Your argument could use softening and broadening to at least acknowledge a more spiritual realm that somehow, miraculously, could mitigate against a wipeout for humanity.
Hey Erik, have you read The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by the physicist David Deutsch? He argues for a very different ending than what you believe and I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
Thanks Brad. I haven't read the book, however, I can see his fault of logic right here in the Wikipedia entry for the book, quote:
"Deutsch criticizes Jared Diamond's resource luck theories as to why the West came to dominate the other continents outlined in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. For Deutsch, the sustained creation of knowledge could have arisen anywhere and led to a beginning of infinity; it just happened to arise in Europe first. Deutsch extols the philosophical concept of optimism, where although problems are inevitable, solutions will always exist provided the right knowledge is sought out and acquired."
Once again, here we see someone who doesn't appear to understand the difference between a problem and a predicament. Is there any indication in the book that he does, in fact, understand the difference?
On a slightly different note, I see optimism bias and anthropocentrism in his thesis which can best be described as a belief in human ingenuity: https://problemspredicamentsandtechnology.blogspot.com/2023/02/yeah-but-what-about-human-ingenuity.html
It's been a while since I have read it but I don't recall him demonstrating the difference between a problem and a predicament although I am sure he would readily argue humanities predicaments could be solved with the right knowledge.
Yes, he is definitely biased about humanities future.
Deutsch, when he is best, enjoys making logically correct statements that are utterly irrelevant in all practicality, such as everything that is possible is doable with the right knowledge. Great.
It doesn’t ring true that any sane person would argue here for aliens as salvation, but although you are dealing with incontrovertible data, the universe also is a place for miracles. Your argument could use softening and broadening to at least acknowledge a more spiritual realm that somehow, miraculously, could mitigate against a wipeout for humanity.