According to quantum theory there exists a finite probability that someone
will simulate me in a virtual environment using a computer. This means that
there is a finite probability that I could wake up in a virtual world with
different effective laws of physics. Of course, the real laws of physics
haven't
changed, but to me that's not relevant. Once I find myself in the
simulation, I have to deal with the virtual world.
I would thus say:
The MWI of quantum physics implies that all logical possible universes
actually exist, because they can all be simulated inside a single universe,
and the MWI guarantees that every posible simulation is actually being run
on a computer in some branch.
Brett Hall wrote:
> There's 'many worlds' and there's the multiverse. In terms of
philosophical
> games - that is, in terms of modal logic - postulating the infinite class
of
> possible worlds is a useful tool when discussing the notions of
> 'possibility' and 'necessity'. This is an extremely interesting field in
> philosophy. Check out perhaps the most famous exposition on this in
American
> David Lewis' "On the Plurality of Worlds'. In using this device one can
> certainly speculate about universes (worlds) which operate under different
> laws to our own. Do they 'really' exist? Well we certainly do not have
> access to them and speculating that they 'really do physically exist'
might
> be interesting - but it's certainly not scientifically testible. One may
> arrive at the conclusion that they indeed do physically exist - but only
on
> purely philosophical grounds.
>
> The Multiverse - that is Quantum Theory - posits that there exists an
> infinite set of almost-parallel universes. These do physically exist and
we
> have access to them. They obey our laws. A recent post by David Deutsch on
> this topic speculated that universes where magic really does work (or at
> least always has seem to have worked) are actually in existence even
though
> the number of them may be vanishingly small. These universes appear to
have
> different laws to ours but infact they do not. It is simply the case that
> whenever, say, a Harry Potter type student wizard tried to pull a rabbit
out
> of an empty hat - he did due to some rather exotic and improbable
> goings-on. But none of that suggests that that universe obeys different
> laws. Pulling rabbits out of 'empty' hats - as improbable as it may be -
is
> consistent with quantum theory. Again, this may be wierd, but not all that
> is weird is supported by quantum theory. Anyone who says they really can
> pull rabbits out of empty hats should be disbelieved, of course, not
because
> what they say is 'impossible' given the laws of physics but rather
> overwhelmingly unlikely.
> Brett Hall.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <tom77.domain.name.hidden>
> To: <Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden>
> Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 10:47 AM
> Subject: Universes with different laws?
>
>
> > Do universe with different laws supposedly exist? Is there lots of
> > universes where say the charge on an electron is different? and so
> > on....
> >
> > I was reading a Martin Rees book and he mentioned Many worlds, but he
> > seemed to be talking about lots of different universes with different
> > laws in each one, rather than lots of universes with the same laws in
> > each. This is to allow a nice set of physical laws to exist, which of
> > course is nesscesary for life to emerge.
> >
> > What does Deutsch say of this?
> >
> >
> > Tom
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
>
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Received on Sat Aug 18 2001 - 14:57:55 PDT