From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Sat Dec 08 2001 - 21:31:02 MST
First rule of science fiction: you're only allowed one miracle. You've
already claimed yours (i.e. Friendliness) Eli, you aren't allowed any more.
;-)
jb
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
> [A BILLION YEARS LATER]
>
> JB: So our model of physics was right, then?
> S: Mostly. It's fair to say it was substantially correct.
> JB: And the second law of thermodynamics?
> S: Still standing strong.
> JB: Okay, so how does this geegaw work then? I saw you spin it up back
> in 2016 and it's still spinning now.
> S: Oh, that doesn't violate the second law of thermodynamics. It's a
> Banach-Tarski gyroscope.
> JB: Huh?
> S: It's increasing in entropy. It'll go on increasing in entropy
> forever. We just don't see the entropy, that's all. You see, this
> gyroscope is partitioned into a countable set of uncountable sets of real
> points. Each time it spins, a new set of real points rotates into place,
> and that's where we dump the entropy. Then we do the same thing on the
> next rotation. It's like the way you can convert a circle missing a
> single real point into a closed circle with a single rotation of...
> JB: Nevermind. Okay, what about this thing? I'm sure I saw that on the
> other side of the lab a femtosecond ago. That has to violate the
> lightspeed limit. Did the lightspeed limit get disproven?
> S: No, of course not! The lightspeed limit is still standing solid.
> That's a Calvin-Hobbes transmogrifier unit.
> JB: So how does it get from point A to point B in less then C?
> S: It doesn't. It was already there to begin with.
> JB: Where?
> S: Both places.
> JB: I see. And this palace you manufactured out of nothing... doesn't
> that violate conservation of mass and energy?
> S: Rest assured that the total mass of this palace is zero.
>
> (You get the idea.)
>
> -- -- -- -- --
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
> Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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