Re: Implications of MWI

From: Norman Samish <ncsamish.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 22:30:31 -0700

Jonathan,
    If it is true that “In infinite time and infinite space, whatever can
happen, must happen, not only once but an infinite number of times,” then
what does probability mean? In your example below, there must be an
infinity of worlds where Colin Powell is president and an infinity of worlds
where your 6-year old niece is president. Are you saying that the Colin
Powell infinity is bigger than the 6-year old niece infinity?
Norman

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Colvin" <jcolvin.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 2:49 PM
Subject: RE: Implications of MWI



>Mark Fancey writes:
>> Did accepting and understanding the MWI drastically alter your
>> philosophical worldview? If so, how?
>
>Hal: I don't know if I would describe it as a drastic alteration,
>but I do tend to think of my actions as provoking a continuum
>of results rather than a single result. <snip>

>Another way it has influenced my thinking is about future
>indeterminacy.
>I now believe, for example, that there is no meaning to
>certain questions that people ask about future conditions.
>For example, who will be the next president? I don't think
>this question is meaningful. Many people will be the next
>president. My consciousness spans multiple universes where
>different people will be president.

But there are likely many many more universes where Colin Powell is the next
president than there are where my 6 year old neice is. So it is a meaningful
question.

>Any question like this which presupposes only one future has a
>similar problem. Another one we often hear is, are we in a
>speculative bubble in real estate (or stocks, or whatever).
>That's a meaningless question.
>Bubbles can only be defined retrospectively. If prices fall,
>then we were in a bubble; if they don't, then we weren't. But
>both futures exist.
>I live in worlds where we are in a bubble and worlds where we
>are not in a bubble. The question has no answer.

But again we can make a probabilistic argument that there are many more
universes where house prices continue climbing than there are where all
houses become worthless tomorrow.

Jonathan Colvin
Received on Thu Apr 28 2005 - 01:34:51 PDT