On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:44 PM, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote:
An uploaded mind is running within a computer process. If the mind presses > a button inside its virtual environment, the process will fork and if > within the simulation of the child process a light within the virtual > environment will flash blue, while in the parent process it will flash red. > The uploaded mind has pushed the button many times, and each time witnessed > either a blue flash or red flash, seemingly at random and with a seemingly > equal probability of witnessing either color. Within the simulation there > is also a casino which allows betting on which color will flash after the > button is pressed. > > The question is,* If the game cost $1 to play, and if it was your mind > that was uploaded into this computer process what would the minimum pay out > have to be for you to play, and what would your betting strategy be?* > Assuming that just I am duplicated (and not my wallet) and assuming the winning prize is $2 I'd bet on red and I'd make a dollar every time I press the button. Yes the child won't win $2 but he didn't pay $1 for the privilege of pushing the button either so he lost nothing. However the casino owner is heading for bankruptcy. OK I hear you say, what if your wallet was duplicated too? Then the wallet the copy inherits will be $1 lighter but unlike the original will not win $2 so he's out $1. All that is true but it has nothing to do with me because my exact copy is no longer exact, we've had different experiences and thus have diverged; I saw a red light and won the bet but that other fellow saw a blue light and lost the bet. 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 [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.
