Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > Jason Resch writes:
> Let's say being spared is "neutral" while being tortured is obviously bad, > even > if you are tortured for only a few minutes. Also, assume the intensity of the > torture and the quality of life on being spared is the same in duplication/ > coin toss > situations. > > What if I change the example and say you will be duplicated a million times, > and > only one of the copies will be tortured? From a selfish point of view, you can > almost certainly expect to find yourself one of the copies that will be > spared, > and I think you would be crazy to choose the coin flip. The equivalence of the > coin flip/ duplication example (when the probabilities are equal) is why we > cannot > distinguish between MWI and CI of QM. It makes no difference to me whether > the world splits into two and one copy of me is tortured if I toss the coin > or whether > there is only one version of me with a 50% chance of being tortured. > In the case you laid out you give two choices: A) The replicator B) The coin flip Case A results in 999,999 neutral lifetimes worth of observer moments and 1 lifetime of excruciating torture filled observer moments. Net outcome among all branched universes: -1 Case B results if half of one's future observer moments remebering torture and half remembering being spared. Net outcome among all branched universes: -0.5 Therefore it's still best to take case B, the coin flip. What makes the result seem so unintuitive is the concept of a lifetime of observer moments that has a net result being neutral. That means that trough all the ups and downs in that life, if one could see it all laid out before them, they would realize that person had so many negative events in their life that they might as well never have been born. With this consideration, it becomes more apparent that the 999,999 extra "neutral" lives offer no real advantage in living out, nor does the spared life in the coin flip need to be figured in. All that should be considered in this case is that with replication all universes will have someone who is tortured, while in the coin flip only half will. Most people consider their life to be a positive thing, and few would say they wouldn't mind if they had never been born. For most people, if it came down to a million life times for one person's torture, it would be a better choice over than the coin flip. Here the replication is only the optimal choice for neutral life times. If a lifetime is very positive, the 999,999 good lives outweigh the one tortured. If the spared lifetimes were very negative, the 999,999 lifetimes would only add to the negative observer moments created through the torture, and again the coin flip is best. Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
