Dear Russell and Friends, Does not QM's "no-cloning theorem" imply Jesse's argument?
Kindest regards, Stephen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Russell Standish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Wei Dai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Jesse Mazer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 10:45 PM Subject: Re: "Last-minute" vs. "anticipatory" quantum immortality > I think its a little unrealistic to assert that a given copy is > certain to be killed. It is this certainty factor that gives rise to > zombies. So long as there is only a 99.999...1% of something > happening, then no zombies appear. > > Wei Dai wrote: > > > > On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 10:11:04PM -0500, Jesse Mazer wrote: > > > Of course not, no more than I would treat the copy who materialized in a > > > room with the portrait of the candidate who went on to lose the election as > > > a zombie. From the point of view of myself about to be duplicated, it was > > > certainly be much more probable that my next experience would be of finding > > > myself in the room with the portrait of the candidate who would go on to win > > > (since after the election that copy would be duplicated 999 times while the > > > other would not), but the probability of ending up in the room with the > > > losing candidate was not zero, and after the split it is certainly true that > > > both copies are equally conscious. > > > > Suppose you get into an experiment where you're copied, then the original > > is certain to be killed. According to "anticipatory" quantum immortality, > > your probability of experiencing being the original after copying is > > complete is 0. > > > > Therefore you should have no objection to the original being tortured in > > exchange for a payment to the surviving clone, right? (Ignore for a moment > > your natural aversion against torturing anyone. Suppose that if you > > objected to being tortured, a random someone else will be tortured > > anyway.) > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > A/Prof Russell Standish Director > High Performance Computing Support Unit, Phone 9385 6967, 8308 3119 (mobile) > UNSW SYDNEY 2052 Fax 9385 6965, 0425 253119 (") > Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Room 2075, Red Centre http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks > International prefix +612, Interstate prefix 02 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > >