Re: Kiln People

From: Wei Dai <weidai.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 12:47:52 -0800

On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 07:15:34PM -0800, hal.domain.name.hidden wrote:
> If duplicating yourself doubles your measure, then merging two selves
> would halve it, right? Likewise letting one of your two selves be killed
> would halve it as well. So from the point of view of maximizing measure,
> which is supposedly what evolution makes us try to do in the context
> of the multiverse, is it any better to try to arrange to recapture the
> memories of as many golems as possible, or to just let them expire?

This brings up the question: Which measure is evolution making us try to
maximize? The answer is none. It only appears that way because people who
try to maximize their measures according to some measure function will
tend to have large measures according to that measure function. So if
you sample the multiverse according to some measure function,
you'll likely find people who appear to be trying to maximize their
measures according to that measure function. But if you then sample the
multiverse according to a second measure function, you'll likely find
people who appear to be trying to maximize their measures according to the
second measure function.

Unless you believe literally that there is a god that is sampling the
multiverse according to a specific measure function, and you want to
increase the odds of him noticing you, there is no rational justification
for trying to increase your measure according to any specific measure
function.

> From the point of view of gaining useful information and experience, it
> is certainly better to recapture the memories of the dittos. Doing that
> makes it seem like the duplicate was still alive. Yet the measure
> is halved. That seems a little paradoxical.

The paradox can be resolved by noticing that while your measure is halved
either way, your value per unit of measure is increased if you merge.
Received on Tue Jan 15 2002 - 13:01:44 PST