Any discussion of the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon starts with what Joseph and Oliver said.
Everyone else is speculating.
That's First Principles thinking.
"It's mentally easier to reason by analogy rather than from first principles. But first principles is kind of a physics way of looking at the world. What that really means is you boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, 'What are we sure is true?' and then reason up from there. That takes a lot more mental energy." Elon Musk
First principles thinking regarding the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon requires us to know what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said about the Restoration. Believers can say that "what we are sure is true" is what Joseph and Oliver said, formally and in print.
They were the sole witnesses to the restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods. They were the sole witnesses to the restoration of the keys of sealing and gathering (D&C 110). They were the principal participants for the translation of the Book of Mormon and the only two who were authorized to translate the plates.
They both explained that (i) Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates and that (ii) Cumorah/Ramah is in New York.
Lots of people have other theories, but they do not start with these fundamental truths.
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Elon Musk reveals the mental model he uses to learn anything 10x faster:
"The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. We're doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it's like what other people are doing. 'Me too' type ideas. Slight iterations on a theme."
Elon on first principles thinking:
"It's mentally easier to reason by analogy rather than from first principles. But first principles is kind of a physics way of looking at the world. What that really means is you boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, 'What are we sure is true?' and then reason up from there. That takes a lot more mental energy."
He gives the example of batteries:
"Somebody could say, and people do, that battery packs are really expensive and that's just the way they'll always be, because that's the way they've been in the past. Well no, that's pretty dumb. If you applied that reasoning to anything new, you'd never get to that new thing."
Elon explains how first principles changes the question entirely:
"They would say historically it costs $600 per kilowatt hour, so it's not going to be much better than that in the future.
First principles would say:
What are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the spot market value of those materials?
It's got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, some polymers, and a steel can. If we bought that on the London Metal Exchange, what would it cost? It's like $80 per kilowatt hour.
So clearly, you just need to think of clever ways to combine those materials into the shape of a battery cell, and you can have batteries much cheaper than anyone realizes."
