I am not convinced that the MWI implies that quantum suicide should work. A hidden assumption proponents of quantum suicide make is that once you are in a certain branch all the other possible branches are off limits to you. You will forever move on in that branch. I reject this. I could also survive (with memory loss) in another branch in which I never performed the experiment in the first place. Normally this assumption doesn't affect probabilities, except in cases were the observer doesn't survive. I would say that, in principle, a theory of everything would allow you to compute the probability of experiencing a ''personal history'' x, by integrating over all possible histories X of the multiverse that are consistent with x. Within this framework there is no room for quantum suicide to work.
Saibal Tim May wrote: > RSA Broken By The Russians? > > Kolmogorov Cryptography System Possibly Cracked > 1 Apr 1994 > > > MOSCOW (AP) -- At a press conference held minutes ago in a crowded > hall, > Russian mathematicians announced that a breakthrough had been made > nearly a decade ago in the arcane branch of mathematics known as > "cryptography," the science of making messages that are unreadable to > others. > > Leonid Vladwylski, Director of the prestigious Moscow Academy of > Sciences, called the press conference yesterday, after rumors began > circulating that noted Russian-American reporter John Markoff was in > Russia to interview academicians at the previously secret city of > Soviet cryptographers, Kryptogorodok. The existence of > Kryptogorodok, > sister city to Akademogorodok, Magnetogorsk, and to the rocket cities > of Kazhakstan, had been shrouded in secrecy since its establishment > in > 1954 by Chief of Secret Police L. Beria. Its first scientific > director, A. Kolmogorov, developed in 1960 what is called in the West > "public key cryptography." The existence of Kryptogorodok was > unknown > to the West until 1991, when Stephen Wolfram disclosed its existence. > > > American cryptographers initially scoffed at the rumors that the > Russians had developed public-key cryptography as early as 1960, some > 15 years prior to the first American discovery. After interviews > last > year at Kryptogorodok, noted American cryptographers Professor D. > Denning and D. Bowdark admitted that it did seem to be confirmed. > > Professor Denning was quoted at the time saying that she did not > think > this meant the Russians could actually break the Kolmogorov system, > known in the West as RSA, because she had spent more than a full > weekend > trying to do this and had not succeeded. "Believe me, RSA is still > unbreakable," she said in her evaluation report. > > Russia's top mathematicians set out to break Kolmogorov's new coding > system. This required them to determine that "P = NP" (see > accompanying > article). Details are to be published next month in the journal > "Doklady.Krypto," but a few details are emerging. > > The Kolmogorov system is broken by computing the prime numbers which > form what is called the modulus. This is done by randomly guessing > the > constituent primes and then detonating all of the stockpiled nuclear > weapons in the former Soviet Union for each "wrong guess." In the > Many > Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, invented in 1949 by Lev > Landau (and later, independently by Everett and Wheeler in the U.S.), > all possible outcomes of a quantum experiment are realized. > > As Academician Leonid Vladwylski explained, "In all the universes in > which we guessed the wrong factors, we were destroyed completely. > But > since we are obviously here, talking to you at this press > conference, in > this universe we have an unbroken record of successfully factoring > even > the largest of imaginable numbers. Since we are so optimistic about > this method, we say the computation runs in 'Nondeterministic > Pollyanna > Time.' Allow me to demonstrate..." > > [Press Conference will be continued if the experiment is a success.] > > MOSCOW (AP), ITAR-Tass, 1 April 1994 > > > Appendix > -------- > First, it was Stephen Wolfram's actual suggestion, a couple of years ago > after the USSR imploded, that we try to recruit mathematicians and > programmers from what he surmised must exist: a secret city of Soviet > cryptographers. It probably exists. We did it at Los Alamos, they did > it > with their rocket scientists and others (Akademogorodok exists), so why > not > put their version of NSA a bit off the beaten track? Note that our own > NSA > is within a stone's throw of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. I > wouldn't > be surprised to learn that their experts were ensconced somewhere in the > Urals. > > I tried to acknowledge Steve with my comments. By the way, so far as I > know, no word has come out on whether he was right in this speculation. > (Maybe some of the Russians he does in fact have working at Wolfram are > these folks? Naw...) > > Second, Kolmogorov did basic work on information theory, probability, > and > statistics. One has to assume he had ties to the Soviet cryptography > effort (about which little has been written about, so far). If anyone > in > Russia could have seen public key methods coming, he is a candidate. No > evidence that he or any other Russian did, though. > > Third, my references to Denning and Sternlight were perhaps not > riotously > funny (though I didn't aim for a riotously funny tone). Especially in > light of David Sternlight's excellent follow-up here... never let it be > said that David lacks a sense of humor. The Denning reference was to > her > own comments about spending a weekend or so trying (and failing, not > surprisingly) to crack the Skipjack algorithm. (Real ciphers often take > years to break, as with the knapsack algorithm, recent crunching of DES, > etc.). > > Fourth, the "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics does > exist, > and leads to approaches such as I described. It's also a hypothetical > way > to ensure one's wealth: simply bet everything you own at 1000-to-1 odds > and > then commit suicide in all universes in which you lose. Not very > convincing, I agree. Hans Moravec writes about this in his "Mind > Children," 1987. > > Finally, I used the headers and format of a real article in the ClariNet > system, then made modifications. Given that the Supreme Court has > recently > ruled in favor of "fair use" for satire, I hope my version of "2 Live > Crew > meets RSA" does not get my sued. (I could just kill myself in all > realities in which Brad sues me.) >
