The Ontology of Haruhi Suzumiya

[Gamer_2k4]

Originally Posted by AbZeroNow

I'm not sure but I think the Anthropic Principle was invoked in the middle of that. That would be an interesting echo of what Koizumi had said.

Spoiler for latest novel:

I assume you're referring to “——objects that cannot be observed do not exist.” First of all, there are two ways of interpreting the statement. The first (and the more sensible) is that there are no objects that cannot be observed. Or, to put it another way, everything that exists can be observed. It doesn't address Sasaki's point (or relate to the anthropic principle), but at least it makes sense. The second interpretation is much the same as the first, but from the opposite angle. If something cannot be observed, then it might as well (or does) not exist. This is probably what Kuyou means, as it openly refutes Sasaki's question.

Neither of the interpretations of Kuyou's statement really relate to the anthropic principle, which says, "If something must be true for us to exist, then it is true because we exist." The anthropic principle is deceptively simple; it's basically making explicit the implicitly obvious. A similar statement might be, "If there must be ink in a pen for it to write, and the pen is writing, then there is ink in the pen."

Honestly, the whole discussion between the two of them hurts to read, because Sasaki keeps trying to sound smarter than she is (for example, I'm almost positive that infinite descent has nothing to do with time; the framing almost makes me wonder if she's referring to Zeno's paradox) and Kuyou keeps ignoring what she's saying. Bringing up parallel universes is pointless anyway, because they would likely have their own timelines, giving credence to the non-continuous time idea Kuyou is talking about.

So yeah. Not the anthropic principle.

Oh, and I really hope those notes are from the translator, not the author, because otherwise it just reeks of "Look at what I'm putting in the story to show how smart I am; here's an explanation in case you can't keep up." Ugh.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by AbZeroNow

Surprise has really got my puzzling over a few statements made by a certain Anti-SOS Dan member.

Looks like the author found a character to spin his complex explanations. Yuki has pretty much given up saying things Kyon don't understand, so someone else has to take over. Good to hear a different view from another faction.

[AbZeroNow]

Originally Posted by Gamer_2k4

Spoiler for latest novel:

I assume you're referring to “——objects that cannot be observed do not exist.” First of all, there are two ways of interpreting the statement. The first (and the more sensible) is that there are no objects that cannot be observed. Or, to put it another way, everything that exists can be observed. It doesn't address Sasaki's point (or relate to the anthropic principle), but at least it makes sense. The second interpretation is much the same as the first, but from the opposite angle. If something cannot be observed, then it might as well (or does) not exist. This is probably what Kuyou means, as it openly refutes Sasaki's question.

Neither of the interpretations of Kuyou's statement really relate to the anthropic principle, which says, "If something must be true for us to exist, then it is true because we exist." The anthropic principle is deceptively simple; it's basically making explicit the implicitly obvious. A similar statement might be, "If there must be ink in a pen for it to write, and the pen is writing, then there is ink in the pen."

Honestly, the whole discussion between the two of them hurts to read, because Sasaki keeps trying to sound smarter than she is (for example, I'm almost positive that infinite descent has nothing to do with time; the framing almost makes me wonder if she's referring to Zeno's paradox) and Kuyou keeps ignoring what she's saying. Bringing up parallel universes is pointless anyway, because they would likely have their own timelines, giving credence to the non-continuous time idea Kuyou is talking about.

So yeah. Not the anthropic principle.

Oh, and I really hope those notes are from the translator, not the author, because otherwise it just reeks of "Look at what I'm putting in the story to show how smart I am; here's an explanation in case you can't keep up." Ugh.

As far as I can tell, the notes that were in italics were from the translator or the editor of the translation. And thank you for the response correcting me(and yes I was referring to that particular line and I agree with you about it somewhat hurts to read).

There was more after it regarding how alien the aliens are, but it wasn't as interesting and I could follow that part of the conversation better.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally published in The Sneaker's August 2009 issue, this is an inquiry by Tanigawa himself about the concept of time loops. Given the uproar about Endless Eight, I think everyone might enjoy a little look by the author himself.

Without further adu, here is A Study in Augusti.

Spoiler for thoughts:

I thought his take on time looping being time travel was quite a good look at the concept itself. There's some aspects he got wrong, like the cat experiment, but it's a nice little journey into the concept of a time loop. The game analogy was something that I thought fit well; which makes sense as he used the concept in Koizumi's dialogue during Snow Mountain Syndrome.