Freedom of Science

Max Tegmark’s Shut up and Calculate is a typical A==B philosophy. In this type of philosophy the philosophizing doctor floats a definition, in this case

A==The World
B == Equation

and then writes a polemic to sell his definition as the ultimate truth.

In 2000 years philosophers have made great progress. From the World is Fire, or Earth or Air or Water they moved to ether then to string and when you thought they ran out of stuff here comes Tegmark and defines the world as post-modern meta-world:

The world is equation

Tegmark takes the A==B philosophy one step deeper into the scholastic quagmire.

A==B philosophy has a long history and Tegmark’s paper belongs to that tradition. Had Tegmark floated his definition as philosophy he would have acted as an honest philosopher but no one would have paid any attention. This is a dishonest paper because Tegmark markets Shut up and calculate as a physics paper.

In the sense that

Physics == Bad Philosophy

this is correct.

This great essay by Paul Graham can be used as a user’s guide to understand Tegmark’s paper. Graham defines math as “the study of terms that have precise meanings.” Tegmark writes as a physicist and therefore there are no terms that have precise meanings in Shut up and calculate. To Tegmark to use precisely defined terms is anathema and must be avoided at all cost. It is against the laws of physics to use precisely defined symbols.

Tegmark reduces mathematics to equation and therefore reveals his dogmatic physics bias. Mathematics is not equation. On the contrary what physicists call equation is the vehicle they use to corrupt science. In physics even the equality sign is a loaded and meaningless symbol. Tegmark therefore is advocating some kind of nihilism where loaded and context sensitive symbols make sense only when interpreted by doctors endowed with proper level of scholastic authority.

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