the devil's ontology 2025-02-07T14:18:52.516Z

Comment by lostinwilliamsburg on the devil's ontology · 2025-02-07T15:39:44.085Z · LW · GW

imagine you’re playing a game where some rules encoded in words are so special that no one is allowed to touch or change them. these special rules have special properties, so no one questions them. the devil, in this case, is like a sneaky player who hides behind those rules, using them to confuse everyone else. they create a trap by making things so complicated that people can’t figure out what’s really going on. this makes it harder to escape or solve the problem, because the rules are off limits.