Re: all of me or one of me

From: Gilles HENRI <Gilles.Henri.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 13:42:35 +0200

>Wei Dai wrote:
>>Given the MWI or one of the "everything" theories we've discussed, the
>>universe must contain multiple observers who have exactly the same
>>memories and experiences as you do. Should you identify with all of them,
>>or should you think, "I am one of these people, but I don't know which"?
>>
>>I think the following thought experiment shows the latter is more
>>appropriate ...
>
>I have the same understanding.
>Nevertheless I would like to try to make something a little more precise.
>
>Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that there are two and only two
>identical non-interacting and non-interfering newtonian-like universes.
>So there are two copies of you, one in each universe.

But what is the meaning of two identical Universes ? should they not be
identified as a single one?


>In this situation you can say:
>
>"I am one of these people, but I don't know which"
>
>You can even say
>
>"I am one of these people, I don't know which, AND I don't care"
>
>But suppose that in the course of your "life time", the two universes
>"diverge" for some reason, so that a detectable (in principle) difference
>appears.
>
>In that case, even if the difference is not detected, you MUST say
>"I am one of these people, but I don't know which", and you must take that
>into account if you hope to describe a coherent way to quantify the
>indeterminism coming from the "everything" axiom.
>The "probabilities" depends on the relative proportion of relatively
>undistinguishable environments.


And if the Universe are slightly different, what is the meaning of "copies
of yourself"? Should not anybody consider himself as a unique copy of a
single being, even if you share the same past with other beings (like
normal twins) ? You could consider that two Universes could be locally
identical but different outside some region, but it is not that obvious.
For example if the physical fields are analytical they must be either equal
everywhere or different in any neighborhood of any point....


>Do you see what I am trying to say ? Do you agree ?
>
>Bruno
Received on Tue Apr 06 1999 - 04:43:50 PDT