Bruno, Thanks for your response. I think I understand now.
Jason On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 13 Feb 2013, at 16:25, Jason Resch wrote: > > > > On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 9:18 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> On 13 Feb 2013, at 04:09, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: >> >> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Jason Resch <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Consider the following thought experiment, called "The Duplicators": >>>> >>>> At 1:00 PM tomorrow, you will be abducted by aliens. The aliens will >>>> tell >>>> you not to worry, that you won't be harmed but they wish to conduct some >>>> experiments on the subject of pain, which is unknown to them. These >>>> aliens >>>> possess technology far in advance of our own. They have the ability to >>>> scan >>>> and replicate objects down to the atomic level and the aliens use this >>>> technology to create an atom-for-atom duplicate of yourself, which they >>>> call >>>> you2. The aliens thank you for your assistance and return you unharmed >>>> back >>>> to your home by 5:00 PM. You ask them "What about the pain >>>> experiments?" and >>>> they hand you an informational pamphlet and quickly fly off. You read >>>> the >>>> pamphlet which explains that a duplicate of you (you2) was created and >>>> subjected to some rather terrible pain experiments, akin to what humans >>>> call >>>> torture and at the end of the experiment you2 was euthanized. You >>>> consider >>>> this awful, but are nonetheless glad that they tortured your duplicate >>>> rather than you. >>>> >>>> Now consider the slightly different thought experiment, called "The >>>> Restorers": >>>> >>>> At 1:00 PM tomorrow, you will be abducted by aliens. Unlike the aliens >>>> with >>>> the duplication technology (the duplicators), these aliens possess a >>>> restorative technology. They can perfectly erase memories and all other >>>> physical traces to perfectly restore you to a previous state. The aliens >>>> will tell you not to worry, that you won't be harmed but they wish to >>>> conduct some experiments on the subject of pain, which is unknown to >>>> them. >>>> They then proceed to brutually torture you for many hours, conducting >>>> test >>>> after test on pain. Afterwards, they erase your memory of the torture >>>> and >>>> all traces of injury and stress from your body. When they are finished, >>>> you >>>> are atom-for-atom identical to how you were before the torture began. >>>> The >>>> aliens thank you for your assistance and return you unharmed back to >>>> your >>>> home by 5:00 PM. You ask them "What about the pain experiments?" and >>>> they >>>> hand you an informational pamphlet and quickly fly off. You read the >>>> pamphlet which explains that a duplicate of you (you2) was created and >>>> subjected to some rather terrible pain experiments, akin to what humans >>>> call >>>> torture and at the end of the experiment you2 was euthenized. You >>>> consider >>>> this awful, but are nonetheless glad that they tortured your duplicate >>>> rather than you. >>>> >>>> My questions for the list: >>>> >>>> 1. Do you consider yourself to have experienced the torture in the case >>>> of >>>> the Restorers, even though you no longer remember it? If not, why not. >>>> >>>> 2. If yes, do you consider yourself to have experienced the torture in >>>> the >>>> case of the Duplicators? If yes, please explain, if not, please >>>> explain. >>>> >>>> 3. If you could choose which aliens would abduct you, is there one you >>>> would >>>> prefer? If you have a preference, please provide some justification. >>>> >>> >>> The two experiments are equivalent. Rationally, you should not have a >>> preference for either - though both are bad in that you experience >>> pain but then forget it. >>> >> >> OK, same answer (assuming comp). >> > > > With comp are the probabilities the same? For instance, would there be a > "50% chance of experiencing the torture when duplicated vs. 100% in the > case of the memory wipe? > > > It is counter-intuitive, but if the memory wipe is perfect, the relative > probabilities, evaluated before the experiment, should be the same. If a > future memory wipe is done perfectly, it is analogous to a reconstitution > of a past (3p) state in the future, and before that first state occurence, > you have a probability non null to find yourself in the future. > > It is not clear if such a perfect memory wipe is possible in practice > though. > > Bruno > > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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