On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 12:01 PM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be> wrote:
>> Digital teleportation is not necessary, with existing technology I can >> make a real experiment, not just a thought experiment, that incorporates >> all the philosophical implications, such as they are, as your hi-tech >> version. In Helsinki I put you into a soundproof box, I then flip a fair >> coin and put you and the box on a jet headed to either Washington of >> Moscow. Several hours later you push a button, the box opens and you find >> out what city your eyes are receiving signals from. Do you find anything >> about this surprising or philosophically interesting? I don't. >> > > > OK. That clear. You really miss the point. In your scenario, you throw a > coin. In the duplication, you don't throw any coin, yet it generates the > same situation, indeed. That is the "miracle". > In both cases if the Helsinki man sees Moscow he will turn into the Moscow man and if the Helsinki man sees Washington he will turn into the Washington man. You're big on point of view so you must know that if your doppelganger is experiencing a different city it in no way effects what you are seeing; so philosophically my low-tech experiment works just as well and is just as uninformative as your hi-tech version. > I give you a Island spath (CaCO_3 cristal), and I send a photon in some > polarized state, and if it deviates, I send you to Moscow, and if not, I > send you to Washington. > Then the calculation is easy and precise, the probability that I the Helsinki man will be in Moscow is 0% and the probability that I the Helsinki man will be in Washington is 0% because in any other city "I" would no longer be the Helsinki man. If you change the meaning of the personal pronoun "I" you can change the probability to 100% for both cities. But no matter what "I" means it will always be the case that the man who sees Moscow will be the Moscow man. John K Clark -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
