RE: quantum suicide = deadly dumb

From: Higgo James <james.higgo.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 09:20:08 -0000

Jaques, Gilles said exactly what I would have said.
James

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gilles HENRI [SMTP:Gilles.Henri.domain.name.hidden]
> Sent: 26 November 1998 09:18
> To: everything-list.domain.name.hidden
> Subject: Re: quantum suicide = deadly dumb
>
> >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, your sentence " if you are a typical Bob, you are 50% likely to
> die" has not the same meaning as in common life. As all worlds where you
> don't exist have no signification for you, you can say by anthropic
> principle that you (i.e. at least one of your possible future) are sure to
> continue to live in a world where you survived suicide, unless the quantum
> probability of this event is strictly zero. You are not sensitive to the
> fact that you exist only in a very small fraction of the possible
> Universes.
>
> Gilles
>
Received on Thu Nov 26 1998 - 01:27:13 PST