On Thu, 31 Dec 1998, Jacques Bailhache wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Gilles HENRI wrote:
> > >Unfortunately because currently accepted decision theory makes some
> > >metaphysical assumptions, it can be compatible with a spacially infinite
> > >universe but not with MWI. Basicly decision theory depends on the idea of
> > >alternate realities and the notion that an individual chooses the actual
> > >reality among the alternatives as he makes decisions and acts upon them.
> > >But according to MWI, all alternatives are real and have predetermined
> > >measures.
Obviously false, as explained in my previous posts, both for a
theory like QM with initial conditions as free parameters, and even for a
theory in which there are no free parameters as explained in my last post.
> If MWI is true and if every possible decision is made in one universe, it is
> clear that the concept of decision has no sense. This leads to the collapse
> of ethics.
The above paragraph makes no sense to me.
> But MWI and other theories are mental constructs subjects to
> doubt, and the error is much more serious in one sense than in the other :
> if one thinks that decisions have no sense, but in fact they have (if MWI is
> false, or perhaps also if Multiple Minds interpretation is true), this is
> catastrophic : one could make no efforts to reach his goals, thinking that
> everything is perdeterminated (at the level of all worlds), but in fact only
> one world (in which he will not reach his goals) will become true if MWI is
> false. But in the other sense, the error has no importance. The situation is
> similar to Pascal's Bet. This consideration could lead to a rather strange
> position for the MWI believers : believe that MWI is true, but act as if it
> was false, in the case they were wrong.
This is the part that got me riled up. Pascal's bet is the height
of stupidity. I'd rather live as an atheist and go to hell than spend an
eternity kissing up to a god so evil and self centered that he'd send me
to hell just for not believing in him when I had no evidence.
- - - - - - -
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 Thu Dec 31 1998 - 14:35:56 PST