Johnathan Corgan writes:
> Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > If some multiverse theory happens to be true then by your way of argument > > we > > should all be extremely anxious all the time, because every moment terrible > > things > > are definitely happening to some copy of us. For example, we should be > > constantly > > be worrying that we will be struck by lightning, because we *will* be > > struck by lightning. > > If MWI is true, *and* there isn't a lowest quantum of > probability/measure as Brent Meeker speculates, there is an interesting > corollary to the quantum theory of immortality. > > While one branch always exists which continues our consciousness > forward, indeed we are constantly "shedding" branches where the most > brutal and horrific things happen to us and result in our death. Their > measure is extremely small, so from a subjectively probability > perspective, we don't worry about them. > > I'd speculate that there are far more logically possible ways to > experience an agonizing, lingering death than to live. Some have a > relatively high measure, like getting hit by a car, or getting lung > cancer (if you're a smoker), so we take steps to avoid these (though > they still happen in some branch.) Others, like having all our > particles spontaneously quantum tunnel into the heart of a burning > furnace, are so low in measure, we can blissfully ignore the > possibility. Yet if MWI is true, there is some branch where this has > just happened to us. (modulo Brent's probability quantum.) > > If there are many more ways to die than to live, even of low individual > measure, I wonder how the "integral of the measure" across all of them > comes out. It's not death that is the problem (you always get out of that), it's suffering. Final death would be better than a living hell, but QTI denies you final death. I take comfort in the speculation that if I'm still alive in a few hundred years, most likely this will be as a result of some advanced medical or cybernetic intervention, and if science understands the brain well enough to do that, it would be a relatively simple matter by comparison to ensure that I am content. I think the hellish routes to immortality would occur mostly by chance and would be of much lower total measure than the deliberate, happy routes. Stathis Papaioannou _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
