Re: Travelling to a different universe

From: George Levy <GLevy.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 19:53:53 -0800

> Saibal Mitra wrote:
>
> Suppose that every week I subject myself to a suicide experiment. I
> use a suicide machine to win that weeks lottery. After a few years I
> will have won hundreds of times in succession.
>
> Now there exists a class of universes, with a very low measure, in
> which the laws of physics are such that I am guaranteed to win. The
> probability that I find myself in such a universe will have increased
> substantially after each experiment. After a few years I will be sure
> to live in such a universe. It would be easy to check, all I would
> have to do is to buy a ticket and see if I have won without using the
> suicide machine.
>
> Saibal

Actually such universes are not too difficult to imagine. For example
you could end up in a universe where you have a secret admirer in the
lottery office, ie, the person who is programming the computer to
generate the winning numbers and who has been arranging the outcome of
the lottery to be in you favor. This person is a jilted lover who has
never lost her love for you, and has decided that if she disturb your
life enough by showering you with riches you might get a divorce from
your wife and get back together with her. As it turns out she has a
child who, unknown to you, was born after the torridly passionate affair
you had with her while you were in college. The child is sick and the
only cure is a transplant which can be provided only by a close
relative. Her blood type made that transplant impossible but since your
are type "O" you are the only person in the whole world who could save
that child. So brace yourself Saibal, you are about to lose a kidney for
the benefit of this newly found relative of yours. Oops but wait, there
is an element of doubt as to whether you are the real father... Should
you sacrifice yourself for the child of maybe another? Well, you are
still in love with your previous girlfriend. So what should you do?


By the way, this universe does not feel as if it has a low measure... It
is just as arbitrary as the universe we live in now.

George
Received on Sun Dec 23 2001 - 19:55:29 PST