Johnathan Corgan wrote: > David Nyman wrote: > > [re: QTI] > >>This has obvious >>implications for retirement planning in general and avoidance of the >>more egregious cul-de-sac situations. On the other hand, short of >>outright lunacy vis-a-vis personal safety, it also seems to imply that >>from the 1st-person pov we are likely to come through (albeit possibly >>in less-than-perfect shape) even apparently minimally survivable >>situations. This struck me particularly forcibly while watching the >>9/11 re-runs on TV last night. > > > It's the cul-de-sac situations that interest me. Are there truly any? > Are there moments of consciousness which have no logically possible > continuation (while remaining conscious?) > > It seems the canonical example is surviving a nearby nuclear detonation. > One logical possibility is that all your constituent particles > quantum-tunnel away from the blast in time. > > This would be of extremely low measure in absolute terms, but what about > the proportion of continuations that contain you as a conscious entity? > > This also touches on a recent thread about "how being of low measure > feels." If QTI is true, and I'm subject to a nuclear detonation, does it > matter if my possible continuations are of such a low relative measure? > Once I'm "in" them, would I feel any different and should I care? > > These questions may reduce to something like, "Is there a lower limit to > the amplitude of the SWE?" > > If measure is infinitely divisible, then is there any natural scale to > its absolute value?
I think it is not and there is a lower limit below which cross terms in the density matrix must be strictly (not just FAPP) zero. The Planck scale provides a lower bound on fundamental physical values. So it makes sense to me that treating probability measures as a continuum is no more than a convenient approximation. But I have no idea how to make that precise and testable. Brent Meeker --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
