From: Norman Noman (overturnedchair@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2007 - 06:14:41 MDT
On 8/26/07, Matt Mahoney <matmahoney@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Norman Noman <overturnedchair@gmail.com> wrote:
> > If there was a magic word that made people turn into frogs, I would have
> a
> > hard time considering that a natural feature.
>
> No you wouldn't. Miracles are miracles only because they are rare.
No, they're not. They're miracles because they're rare and they can't be
explained. It's really rare for a movie to be made that's based on an
amusement part ride, but it does happen occasionally and nobody considers it
a miracle.
If people could be turned into frogs, we would adjust our scientific
> theories to fit the
> facts. We do it all the time.
Conservation of mass (adjusted)
The mass of a closed system of substances will remain constant, regardless
of the processes acting inside the system, except when people are being
turned into frogs.
Yes, I can see how after a few years, that little wrinkle would be all
ironed out.
I thought I was making my case rather bluntly, but apparently it was blunt
enough. Let's say in addition to the frog word, there's a magic word that
makes the names of the programmers scroll upwards across the sky in giant
letters of fire, accompanied by a pleasant MIDI file, and after they're done
scrolling there's a blinking message that says THIS UNIVERSE IS A
SIMULATION.
Would that be distinguishable from a feature? Mr. Smart Guy?
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