William Vandenberghe writes:> On Jan 25, 3:50 am, Russell Standish <[EMAIL
PROTECTED]> wrote:> > On Fri, Jan 26, 2007 at 03:54:32PM -0500, John M wrote:>
>> > > PS I still would appreciate to be directed to a short text explaining
the essence of ASSA (RSSA?). JIt is in my book. Here is the relevant excerpt:>
>> > \section[ASSA vs RSSA]{Absolute vs Relative Self Sampl\-ing Assumption}>
>> > In the course of a lengthy, and at times heated debate between Jacques> >
Mallah and myself, it became clear we were always arguing from> > disparate
positions\cite{Mallah-Standish}. At the heart of our> > difference of opinion
was how the strong self sampling> > assumption\index{self sampling
assumption!strong|emph} should be> > applied. Jacques Mallah assumed that each
observer moment had an> > absolute positive measure, and that our current
observer moment is> > selected at random from that distribution.> >> > Since I
accept the TIME postulate,\index{TIME postulate} only the> > birth moment is
selected at random, according to the self sampling> > assumption. Thereafter,
each observer moment's measure can be> > determined {\em relative} to its
predecessor by means of Born's> > rule\index{Born rule}> > (\ref{proj-prob}).
Arguing with this notion of observer measure, first> > person immortality
follows provided the no cul-de-sac conjecture\index{no cul-de-sac conjecture}
is> > true.> >> > The Everything List adopted the term {\em Absolute Self
Sampling> > Assumption}\index{self sampling assumption!absolute|emph} to> >
refer to Mallah's use of strong self sampling, and the {\em Relative> > Self
Sampling Assumption}\index{self sampling assumption!relative|emph} for the
version I use. Since this> > debate took place, other debates have taken
place between members of> > the ``absolute'' camp, which includes such names
as Jacques> > Mallah,\index{Mallah, Jacques}> > Saibal Mitra,\index{Mitra,
Saibal} Hal Finney\index{Finney, Hal} and the ``relative'' camp which includes>
> Bruno Marchal,\index{Marchal, Bruno} Stathis> > Papaioannou, and myself.>
>> > \index{Papaioannou, Stathis}\index{Standish, Russell}> >> > Both of these
``camps'' appear to have internally consistent pictures.> > The fact that I'm
not currently experiencing childhood, is for me> > strong evidence that the
ASSA is an incorrect application of the> > strong self sampling assumption.> >>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
> A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)> >
Mathematics > > UNSW SYDNEY 2052
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Australia
http://www.hpcoders.com.au> >
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
> I think you can add me to the ASSA camp :)> > How does the fact that you're
not experiencing childhood provide> evidence that ASSA is incorrect, as chances
of experiencing childhood> or adulthood are both significant so I don't see why
that would rule> out ASSA ... I kind of expected a different definition for
RSSA as this> definition does not even solve any of the crazy paradoxes ASSA
has ...> Well, anyway, time to look up the time postulate :)Suppose for
simplicity that there is only one world: you live your life from birth to death
and that's it. God reveals to you that you will live to be 100, but on your
50th birthday he will create a zillion copies of you which will all run in
parallel for one minute and then all but one of the copies will be instantly
destroyed. This means that almost all of your measure will be contained in that
one minute on your 50th birthday. You can add variations to this thought
experiment: God planned this before you were born; God will not decide to do
this until you are 45; God will wait until the eve of your 50th birthday and
toss a coin to decide whether he will make the copies or not; God does not tell
you of his decision and you have to come up with a method to test whether he
makes the copies or not. I claim that it will be impossible to notice anything
unusual happening at any point in your life as a result of God's action or
inaction. The first minute of your 50th birthday will last exactly one minute
and will feel exactly the same as the preceding and the following minute. What
do you think the ASSA predicts you will experience? Can you design a test to
see what God is up to if he doesn't tell you? Stathis Papaioannou
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