Mere Reality
From Lesswrongwiki
Mere Reality is the fourth book contained in the ebook Rationality: From AI to Zombies, by Eliezer Yudkowsky. It focuses on practical and philosophical questions related to science and the character of physical law.
Mere Reality contains six sequences of thematically connected essays, plus the stand-alone essay A Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation. These are all collected in the Rationality: From AI to Zombies ebook, but the essay names below also link to the original blog posts.
The previous book in the series is The Machine in the Ghost, and the next book is Mere Goodness.
Contents
O. Lawful Truth
- 181. Universal Fire
- 182. Universal Law
- 183. Is Reality Ugly?
- 184. Beautiful Probability
- 185. Outside the Laboratory
- 186. The Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Engines of Cognition
- 187. Perpetual Motion Beliefs
- 188. Searching for Bayes-Structure
P. Reductionism 101
- 189. Dissolving the Question
- 190. Wrong Questions
- 191. Righting a Wrong Question
- 192. Mind Projection Fallacy
- 193. Probability is in the Mind
- 194. The Quotation is not the Referent
- 195. Qualitatively Confused
- 196. Think Like Reality
- 197. Chaotic Inversion
- 198. Reductionism
- 199. Explaining vs. Explaining Away
- 200. Fake Reductionism
- 201. Savanna Poets
Q. Joy in the Merely Real
- 202. Joy in the Merely Real
- 203. Joy in Discovery
- 204. Bind Yourself to Reality
- 205. If You Demand Magic, Magic Won't Help
- 206. Mundane Magic
- 207. The Beauty of Settled Science
- 208. Amazing Breakthrough Day: April 1st
- 209. Is Humanism a Religion-Substitute?
- 210. Scarcity
- 211. The Sacred Mundane
- 212. To Spread Science, Keep It Secret
- 213. Initiation Ceremony
R. Physicalism 201
- 214. Hand vs. Fingers
- 215. Angry Atoms
- 216. Heat vs. Motion
- 217. Brain Breakthrough! It's Made of Neurons!
- 218. When Anthropomorphism Became Stupid
- 219. A Priori
- 220. Reductive Reference
- 221. Zombies! Zombies?
- 222. Zombie Responses
- 223. The Generalized Anti-Zombie Principle
- 224. GAZP vs. GLUT
- 225. Belief in the Implied Invisible
- 226. Zombies: The Movie
- 227. Excluding the Supernatural
- 228. Psychic Powers