RE: Alternate deductive route to the existence of all universes
Welcome, Hans, to this little tribe of immortals.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hans Moravec [SMTP:hpm.domain.name.hidden]
> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 1999 7:39 AM
> To: everything-list.domain.name.hidden
> Subject: Re: Alternate deductive route to the existence of all
> universes
>
> Christopher Maloney:
> > I was a little turned off, if I remember correctly, by some
> > of the book flap, where they described some of your predictions.
>
> They're my best shot at extrapolating the developments I see. One
> branch of machine development seems to be roughly recapitulating the
> evolution of our own minds, but at about ten-million speed. It has
> progressed from the equivalent of no nervous system 100 years ago to
> the very bottom of the vertebrate scale (roughly insect nervous
> complexity) now. Computer power is growing fast enough to zoom
> machines through reptile-, mammal- and human-like complexity over the
> next 50 years. I do my best to figure the consequences of that
> development, and make a few suggestions.
>
> >> It also notes that, no matter
> >> what happens to us, among all universes there are some in which our
> >> consciousness continues, and we will always find ourselves in those
> >> (and never in ones where our consciousness does not continue!).
>
> > So do you believe in immortality? Where do you stand on the FAP the
> > Final Anthropic Principle, ala Tipler and Barrow)?
>
> In all possible universes there are always some where your subjectivity
> continues, no matter what, and those are where you'll find yourself!
> That much I find convincing. But I never found the logic for an Omega
> point compelling. I don't see why you can't just keep on going and
> going on your own unique subjective paths through the space of possible
> universes.
>
> >> For some things that happen (like our brain rotting) the simplest
> >> continuation of our consciousness may no longer involve the exact
> >> continuation of the old physical laws.
>
> > Huh?
>
> The evolution of the universe, earth, life and yourself from the
> working of a very simple (maybe null) TOE and its consequent steady
> physical laws must be the simplest way to produce your subjective
> existence. Now that your mind-implementing brain exists, exquisitely
> evolved to certain physical laws, the simplest continuation of your
> subjectivity is surely for those laws to continue to operate as
> always. But in normal operation your body has a finite lifespan: you
> see other people die all the time. So eventually the continued
> operation of your brain, the mechanism of your subjectivity, becomes
> less and less likely. To continue one day, maybe you need a lucky
> escape from an accident. Later it may take medical luck to keep you
> alive: a cancer cell happens to die, some thymus mutation rejuvinates
> you a bit, an infection happens to clear some arteries ... But as
> more and more coincidences are needed, your subjective continuation
> through the continued operation of physical law may become less
> probable than other continuations among the possible worlds, most of
> which don't have our physics. For instance, you may suddenly discover
> that the physical universe is just a simulation in some other world
> with different laws altogether, and as your brain falls apart, your
> abstract subjective processes, without the underlying physics, are
> "uploaded" into some strange new substrate.
Received on Thu Jul 08 1999 - 01:58:25 PDT
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