Re: the one universe

From: Wei Dai <weidai.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:00:21 -0700

I think in any prior we're likely to look at, no universe where your
current mind state exists but your past ones don't would have a
significant probability, so that question is not really worth worrying
about. (But if you do want to worry about it I'd say you can't eliminate
this possibility.) Suppose the mind states you remember being in do have
physical reality, can you assume that they are contiguous in (objective)
space and/or time? In the counting universe your thread of consciousness
would be spread all over time and space. I don't really think this is a
problem, since you would have the same subjective experiences no matter
what physical form your consciousness takes.

What is problematic about the counting universe is that not only do every
possible mind state exist, but they all have the same status. There is a
continuation of me in the counting universe that is perceiving pink
unicorns, and there is nothing to distinguish that mind state from the one
that is experiencing what we would think of as normality. This is why I
think the conclusion that the real universe is most likely to be the
counting universe is absurd.
Received on Thu Apr 16 1998 - 15:04:27 PDT