You mean experiences are purely qualitative, so there cannot be two identical experiences
rather, if identical they must be one (by Leibniz's identity of indiscernibles) and not
two. But then there are no "experiencers", only sequences of experiences which may have
some unifying property and which may share elements with other sequences.
Brent
On 9/2/2013 8:55 PM, Dennis Ochei wrote:
"Qualitatively identical experiencers are also numerically identical" is how i sum this
position up
On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 4:39:27 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote:
On 8/14/2013 7:48 AM, [email protected] <javascript:> wrote:
> Citeren Russell Standish <[email protected] <javascript:>>:
>
>> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 05:26:41PM -0700, Pierz wrote:
>>> I need clarification of the significance of quantum theory to
determining
>>> the *past*. I remember having read or heard that the past itself is
subject
>>> to quantum uncertainty. Something like the idea that the past is
determined
>>> only to to the extent that it is forced to be so by the state of the
>>> present, if that makes sense. In other words, there may be more than one
>>> history that could lead to the current state of the world. Let's say it
>>> might have been one way or another and then we make a measurement which
>>> resolves this question, we are 'forcing' the past to be one way or
another.
>>> In MWI, that would be saying my 'track' through the multiverse is
ambiguous
>>> in both directions, both into the future and 'behind me' so to speak.
I'm
>>> unclear on this and what it precisely means. I seem to recall that it
was
>>> critical in calculations Hawking made about the early universe - at a
>>> certain point these uncertainties became critical and it meant that it
was
>>> no longer possible to say that the universe had definitely been one way
or
>>> another. Can someone clarify this for me?
>>>
>>
>> This idea of the past not being determinate until such a time as a
>> measurement in the present forces the issue is fundamental to my
>> interpretation of QM. It is also related to the Quantum Eraser. Saibal
>> Mitra has written some stuff on this too - maybe he'd like to comment?
>>
>> On the other hand, I don't think this view is particularly
>> mainstream. Even many worlds people tend to think that the multiverse
>> has decohered in the past, and that there is a matter of fact which
>> branch we are in, even if we're ignorant of that fact.
>>
>> I can't comment on Hawking's work, unfortunately, as I'm not aware of
that.
>>
>> Cheers
>> --
>
>
> Yes, I would agree with the view taken by Russell here. It has interesting
consequences
> for any future artificial intelligence who can reset its memory, as I
explain here:
>
> http://arxiv.org/abs/0902.3825
>
> So, if you reset your memory at random with some probability p and you
also do
that in
> case of an impending disaster, then if you find yourself in a state where
you know
that
> your memory has been reset and you need to reload your memory, the reason
why the
memory
> has been reset (routine random memory reset or you were facing an
impending
disaster),
> is no longer determined, you are identical in the different branches
until you
find out
> the reason.
>
> So, while you are firmly in the classical regime and therefore you won't
see any
changes
> in the probabilities of the outcomes of these sorts of experiments
relative to
what you
> would expect classically, the interpretation of how these probabilities
arise is
> different; while it is worthwhile to do these memory resettings in a
"single
classical
> world" it wouldn't be worthwhile.
>
> The article I wrote (it was just an essay for FQXI competition which got
the
attention
> from New Scientist), is actually rather simple, it treats the problem in a
> non-relativistic way, which is a bit unnatural (the times at which things
happen
in the
> different different branches seems to matter). You can easily generalize
this,
also you
> can consider thought experiments involving false memories that may be
correct
memories
> in different branches etc. etc.
Hmm. It seems that "erasing your memory" would encompass a lot more than
what is
commonly
referred to as memory. Quantum erasure requires erasing all the
information that is
diffused into the environment. So erasing one's memory would imply quantum
erasure
of all
the information about your past - not just the infinitesimal bit that you
can
consciously
recall.
Brent
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