If you accept that you can experience having been unconscious, then you also have to accept that you can survive with memory loss in any branch.
This means that if you are faced with almost certain death, it is more likely that you will find yourself alive in a completely different sector of the multiverse than experiencing a miracle that saves your life. Saibal Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > Hal Finney wrote: > > >Arguing against this is that every night you fall asleep, a similar > >loss of consciousness (often with memory erasure of the last few > >thoughts before sleep). This theory would predict that each night you > >only experience universes where, for whatever reason, you never again > >lose consciousness. > > I don't know why this objection to QTI/QS keeps coming up. It is surely a > truism that you cannot *experience unconsciousness*, but this is certainly > not the same as saying that you cannot lose consciousness, or experience > worlds where you lose consciousness. If the loss of consciousness is > permanent (i.e., death), then yes, since it is imposssible to *experience > unconsciousness*, you will not experience those worlds. But if the loss of > consciousness is temporary, as in sleep, you will experience only a > discontinuity from which you might conclude you have gone through a period > of unconsciousness. > > > >You can turn this whole chain of logic around and make it an argument > >against QS. Sleep proves that loss of consciousness is possible, > >and that memory erasure is possible. Imagine memory erasure becoming > >so complete that it erases your entire life. Is that possible? If so, > >isn't it essentially the same as suicide? Or if it's not possible, where > >is the dividing line between the amount of memory erasure that is and > >is not possible? > > I agree, complete memory erasure is essentially the same as suicide. > Therefore, you cannot experience complete memory erasure if QTI is true. The > "dividing line between the amount of memory erasure that is and is not > possible" is a problem in the philosophy of personal identity: how much > "you" can change and still be "you". The MWI predicts that every possible > variation on your mind will exist in some world, and although you can get > into complex discussions about amnesia, delusions etc., a simple answer > might be, those versions which think they are you, are in fact you. > > --Stathis Papaioannou > > _________________________________________________________________ > Buy what you really want - sell what you don't on eBay: > http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/705-10129-5668-323?ID=2 > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> > In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. > At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! > http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/pyIolB/TM > --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fabric-of-Reality/ > > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > >
