Causality Is Not Enough
There is this opinion that what LLMs needs in order to achieve superinteligence is ability for causal thinking.
While I agree that causal inference is important thing it is not the whole theoretical picture. I say theoretical because there is also practical inconvinience of testing AGI hypothesis which is the only way known to expand our knowledge.
But let’s stick with theoretical picture and what is missing.
I claim that what is missing is The Principle of Sufficient Reason which states that:
For every thing that exists there must be a Reason why (explanation) it is that way and not the otherwise.
or as Wolff put it in more generic form:
Nothing is without a reason why it is rather than not. - Wolff
If you have read David Deutsch’s things about explanation he is actually talking there about the principle of sufficient reason, and for me those two terms are the same.
The Reason Why?
It is said that question Why? is the mother of all science. And when you ask why you expect to be responded with reason why or explanation.
Causality deals exclusively with Change
Where can Causality be applied as an explanation/reason? What questions that starts with Why? can be explained with Causality? The answer is that causality is an explanation only for changes , virtual or physical, and nothing more. For example our physical world is a world of constant change and flux. That is why causality is used as an explanation in various natural sciences like physics. Also in computer programs that simulate some part of physical world or imagined world. Everything in our world can be thought as a cause and effect because that’s all there is. Why termometar raised(change) to 30 degrees? Becuse some previous change happened before (sun appeared in sky and rays entered through window).
Question: Why termometar raised(change) to 30 degrees? / Effect Reason: Sun appeared(change) in sky before and rays entered(change) through window. / Cause
Four roots of Reason
It turns out that the reason can be of four types and that causality is just one of four types. If you ask a question:
Why 2+3=5 ?
causality can not be explanation because there is no change and subsequently no cause and effect but there is reason and consequent. Or when you ask:
Why does a triangle with equal angles also have sides of equal length?
You are not dealing with changes. So you can not say it is because some thing happened before. Explanation or Reason for this kind of math questions lies in Time&Space as apriori pure peception and the reason must be grounded in time&space in order to be sufficient or in another words to be called good explanation.
This Reason Schopenhauer called Reason of Being and he proposed following classification of Reason.
- Reason of Becoming (causality) - Why hydrogen mixed with oxygen explodes?
- Reason of Being (time&space) - Why 2+3=5 ?
- Reason of Knowing (formal logic) - Why is this statement true?
- Reason of Acting (Law of motives) - Why there is a statue of Churchil?
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