Re: Variations in measure

From: Saibal Mitra <smitra.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 00:18:20 +0100

Hal wrote:


> One of the concepts we have explored is that all universes and hence
> all minds exist, but that some observer-moments have greater "measure"
> than others. This may help to explain why we observe the kind of universe
> that we do, because we must be observer-moments that have relatively
> large measure.
>
> I wonder if it would be possible for the measure of an individual
> to vary over the course of his lifetime. We do expect the measure
> to fall as he ages, as he comes to occupy fewer and fewer universes.
> However there may be other ways that his measure could change.
>
> For example, suppose he took a drug which made his mental processes
> become confused. He was no longer sure of basic facts about himself
> and the universe. This mental state would no longer be bound to one
> specific universe. Instead, a large collection of distinct universes
> could be consistent with this mental state. These observer-moments
> might therefore have larger measure, since they would correspond to a
> larger part of the multiverse.
>
> In general, one might expect those minds with less observational power
> and less specific knowledge and understanding of the universe to have
> larger measure.
>
> Does this have any implications for the use of the all-universe hypothesis
> to explain and predict our observations?

Yes it does. In particular it explains why we are of finite age, contrary to
what one would naively expect from qti. As I have written some time ago qti
needs to be modified precisely because of the effect you describe above.

The analogy with the universal prior favoring simpler universes is
interesting.

Saibal
Received on Sun Dec 09 2001 - 15:20:22 PST