I don’t disagree. I do question ‘elementary’, particularly when it applies to telling other people what they are allowed to say. One of the reasons this is not ‘elementary’ is that telling people not to think, say or do something has effects that are not limited to (and don’t even necessarily include) the reduction of the prohibited behaviours.
Eliezer’s answer to any hotly-debated topic is remarkably often “obvious” or “elementary”. (I’d elaborate, but I’m not confident I could make it not come off as an irritated rant.)
No, not at all. The epistemic size of the debate about Tychonoff’s theorem is many orders of magnitude smaller than the one about counterfactual mugging or torturing one vs. annoying many. Hence, while I can confidently attribute my Calculus 2 textbook’s massive handwaving on the former to the author being far smarter than me (and possibly lazy), I’m a lot less inclined to be equally charitable towards Eliezer.
Quirk of the Paduan university system: what Americans would call “Calculus” is treated as a part of the “[Mathematical] Analysis” course name, which very often uses the same two-part massive textbook written by a maths professor (which most people buy from older students since it’s so standard) - except that applied scientists study maybe 10-15% of it to cover their MA course, which I believe more or less matches Calculus, while maths and physics students usually take MA2, MA3, MA4, and Topology 1 to finish the tome.
I don’t disagree. I do question ‘elementary’, particularly when it applies to telling other people what they are allowed to say. One of the reasons this is not ‘elementary’ is that telling people not to think, say or do something has effects that are not limited to (and don’t even necessarily include) the reduction of the prohibited behaviours.
Eliezer’s answer to any hotly-debated topic is remarkably often “obvious” or “elementary”. (I’d elaborate, but I’m not confident I could make it not come off as an irritated rant.)
I respect that you can observe that and refrain; it’s a skill not everyone has.
I hear he plans to spend time heavily studying maths once he is finished with his book. Somehow that seems appropriate… :)
No, not at all. The epistemic size of the debate about Tychonoff’s theorem is many orders of magnitude smaller than the one about counterfactual mugging or torturing one vs. annoying many. Hence, while I can confidently attribute my Calculus 2 textbook’s massive handwaving on the former to the author being far smarter than me (and possibly lazy), I’m a lot less inclined to be equally charitable towards Eliezer.
Your Calculus 2 textbook includes a discussion of Tychonoff’s theorem?
Quirk of the Paduan university system: what Americans would call “Calculus” is treated as a part of the “[Mathematical] Analysis” course name, which very often uses the same two-part massive textbook written by a maths professor (which most people buy from older students since it’s so standard) - except that applied scientists study maybe 10-15% of it to cover their MA course, which I believe more or less matches Calculus, while maths and physics students usually take MA2, MA3, MA4, and Topology 1 to finish the tome.
Ah, makes sense now. Grazie.
[off-topic]
You went to university in Padua? Are you from there? Any interesting reflections on the experience?
Moved to PM (or to the Open thread should more people manifest interest).
In that case, allow me to manifest my interest.
(ETA: All the more so since I see that your current location is Uppsala, Sweden.)
I was alluding to the kind of jests that are often made at the expense of mathematicians.