From: Higgo James <james.higgo.domain.name.hidden>
> What you say is fine for 1000 Bobs and Toms but not for an infinite
> number. The probability goes from 'negligable' to 100%. The real
> question is whether it is possible to be one of the dead Bobs, or
> whether yet you will always find that you are and ever will be a
> surviving Bob.
Why should it make any difference whether there are 1000 Bobs or
infinitely many? If there is one Bob every mile on an infinite road, and
every other Bob commits suicide today, there are only half as many Bobs
left, even though there is still an infinite number. The set of Bobs
would lose half its measure, and if you are a typical Bob, you are 50%
likely to die.
You do seem to at least realize that quantum suicide may not work
the way Tegmark says it should. That's a good sign.
The real question is not whether it is possible to 'be dead'. Of
course, death implies a lack of being. Rather, the point is that the
total measure of Bobs would decrease, and that a typical (i.e. randomly
chosen) Bob conscious observation would be twice as likely to be before
the suicide than after.
- - - - - - -
Jacques Mallah (jqm1584.domain.name.hidden)
Graduate Student / Many Worlder / Devil's Advocate
"I know what no one else knows" - 'Runaway Train', Soul Asylum
My URL:
http://pages.nyu.edu/~jqm1584/
Received on Wed Nov 25 1998 - 14:38:48 PST