Re: momentary and persistent minds

From: Wei Dai <weidai.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 13:41:37 -0700

On Tue, Jun 09, 1998 at 04:13:22AM +0000, Nick Bostrom wrote:
> Only if you believe in the many-worlds interpretation. A believer in
> the MWI will have to add the idea of a measure, and say:"I will
> observe X" with amplitude psi(x), and "I will observer Y" with
> amplitude psi(y). This can then be translated into probabilities by
> squaring the amplitude.

I'm not sure what you mean. How does it differ from what I suggested?

> Does this mean that you think the right interpretation of quantum
> mechanics is to postulate an uncountable number of actually existing
> parallel world?

That's one way to get nice probabilities, although I don't like it because
you have to specify the transtemporal identity of worlds, which can't be
derived from the quantum formalism. Another possibility is to say there is
no transtemporal identity of worlds, and use a theory of personal identity
that does not depend on such world identities. David Albert's many-minds
interpretation should also work, given some theory of transtemporal brain
identity.
Received on Tue Jun 09 1998 - 13:44:12 PDT