Hi,
David Deutsch argues in Fabric of Reality that only the Multiverse
conserves quantity (not single branches). The rest is probabilistic
stuff (see Bruno's post)
Cheers,
Günther
Telmo Menezes wrote:
> Yes, you're right. Still I think my argument holds. The production of
> the rifle, bullet and geiger counter system plus the geiger counter
> operation should produce more than enough entropy to compensate for
> the atom not decaying.
>
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Michael Rosefield
> <rosyatrandom.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>> It's not so much the input of energy, it's the production of more entropy
>> where the energy is taken from.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 17/04/2008, Telmo Menezes <telmo.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>>> I would like to argue that in setting this experiment, energy is being
>>> expended to prevent the increase in entropy, albeit not in an obvious
>>> way.
>>>
>>> It is a trivial observation that systems may be devised that prevent
>>> increases in entropy by paying energy costs. One example is an ice
>>> cube in the freezer.
>>>
>>> In the case of this experiment, and assuming MWI, we are creating a
>>> scenario where the atomic decay is not possible from the
>>> experimenter's perspective. However, the experimenter is setting a
>>> system that includes the rifle and the geiger counter. Both these
>>> devices need energy to operate. Maybe it's just a convoluted version
>>> of the ice cube in the freezer?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Telmo Menezes.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 12:18 AM, nichomachus
>>>
>>> <Steven.Payne.Long.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>>>> In the description of the quantum immortality gedanken experiment, a
>>>> physicist rigs an automatic rifle to a geiger counter to fire into him
>>>> upon the detection of an atomic decay event from a bit of radioactive
>>>> material. If the many worlds hypothesis is true, the self-awareness of
>>>> the physicist will continue to find himself alive after any length of
>>>> time in front of his gun, since there exist parallel worlds where the
>>>> decay does not occur.
>>>>
>>>> On a microscopic scale this is analogous to the observing a reality in
>>>> which the second law of thermodynamics does not hold. for example,
>>>> since there is a non-zero probability that molecular interactions will
>>>> result in a decrease in entropy in a particular sealed volume under
>>>> observation, there exist histories in which this must be observed.
>>>>
>>>> This is never observed. Therefore the MWI is shown to be false.
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>
>
> >
>
--
Günther Greindl
Department of Philosophy of Science
University of Vienna
guenther.greindl.domain.name.hidden
http://www.univie.ac.at/Wissenschaftstheorie/
Blog: http://dao.complexitystudies.org/
Site: http://www.complexitystudies.org
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Received on Thu Apr 17 2008 - 12:22:17 PDT