Comment by sniderj1 on Archimedes's Chronophone · 2011-10-07T04:45:16.984Z · LW · GW

The first thing I'd do is convince him that I'm a messenger from a God. So, I'd say "If I had a super-scientific machine that gave me all the answers, I'd put it on a big pedestal in George Mason's engineering building and use it to proofread everyone's research."

And he'd hear "If I had a mystical way of talking to the gods, I'd put in on a big pedestal in the agora and have philosophers talk to it all day."

Once that happens, whatever we want to say will be much more convincing.