On Mon, Jun 09, 2014 at 02:12:59PM +1200, LizR wrote: > On 9 June 2014 13:58, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > I, for one, do not think it such a crazy idea. > > > > When I was a child, I used to chant silently 3 times the outcome I > > wanted before rolling a dice. Surprisingly, it seemed to work > > (although I could easily have been deluded by various sorts of > > selective memory effects). Of course it it worked to the point of > > changing objective outcomes, that truly would be miraculous. However, > > it always seemd that it might be possible to influence the subjective > > probabilities for future branches we occupy in the Multiverse. In a > > rather less controversial way we already do this by choosing which > > basis set to measure - if we choose to measure in the position basis, it > > is not surprising that the probability of ending up in a future with a > > well defined momentum result is therefore zero. > > > > That is exactly the sort of thing my friend had in mind, I think. > > > > > It was pointed out on this list that this implies zombies exist. Well > > it would if the probability of a future branch truly goes to zero, but > > not if the effect is to say favour branch A by ten times branch B, > > where objectively branch A and B are equally probable. Whatever method > > is employed to do this, it must sometimes fail (otherwise zombies > > would indeed exist!). > > > > OK, my take on this is that zombies do exist! That is, if you can really > do it, yet the multiverse is deterministic, that implies that when there > are 10 distinct outcomes and you want one of them (say) for it to be > meaningful that you get it, in the 10 futures 9 of the yous are p-zombies > and one is conscious. Otherwise, how do we reconcile this with (a) > unitarity and determinism, and (b) everyone else having the same ability? > > Suppose there are 10 futures, and Alice wants future A and B wants future > B? They both try really hard to get their one... > > And the multiverse is deterministic... > > Then Alice gets A, Bob gets B (from their 1p point of view) and p-zombie > Alice occupies all branches but A, and similarly for Bob. > > I cannae see how else it could work, Captain. (But perhaps that's just my > limited imagination.) >
Perhaps Alice gets future A with probability 0.9 and future B with p=0.1, and Bob vice versa. Then there would be no zombies. But then the influence on subjective probabilities is no longer infallible. You pays your money, and you takes your choices :). Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
