Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> If some multiverse theory happens to be true then by your way of argument we
> should all be extremely anxious all the time, because every moment terrible things
> are definitely happening to some copy of us. For example, we should be constantly
> be worrying that we will be struck by lightning, because we *will* be struck by lightning.
If MWI is true, *and* there isn't a lowest quantum of
probability/measure as Brent Meeker speculates, there is an interesting
corollary to the quantum theory of immortality.
While one branch always exists which continues our consciousness
forward, indeed we are constantly "shedding" branches where the most
brutal and horrific things happen to us and result in our death. Their
measure is extremely small, so from a subjectively probability
perspective, we don't worry about them.
I'd speculate that there are far more logically possible ways to
experience an agonizing, lingering death than to live. Some have a
relatively high measure, like getting hit by a car, or getting lung
cancer (if you're a smoker), so we take steps to avoid these (though
they still happen in some branch.) Others, like having all our
particles spontaneously quantum tunnel into the heart of a burning
furnace, are so low in measure, we can blissfully ignore the
possibility. Yet if MWI is true, there is some branch where this has
just happened to us. (modulo Brent's probability quantum.)
If there are many more ways to die than to live, even of low individual
measure, I wonder how the "integral of the measure" across all of them
comes out.
-Johnathan
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Received on Wed Jan 24 2007 - 11:43:29 PST