Dear Stathis,
This ties in with the subject header of this series of posts, which is a
rare occurence: Many Wolrds Immortality, according to which there will be
some branch of the multiverse in which I hit enough crows and pigeons on the
way down to form a lifesaving mushy matress (mattress?), is a special case
of a 'many-worlds-absurdity theorem' in which in some branch of the
multiverse I will look down and find my leg be a peg and my ass a giraffe.
But these will only happen if there are infinitely many, rather than just
many, worlds. If you believe in some finite or countable discrete structure
underlying physics, then you could ultimately identify definite events in
which the universe branches off into a finite number of different cases
(which would grow exponentially in time, but would after any given time be
finite).
-Chris Collins
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stathis Papaioannou" <stathispapaioannou.domain.name.hidden>
To: <jeanne.houston.domain.name.hidden>; <r.standish.domain.name.hidden.edu.au>
Cc: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: Many worlds theory of immortality
> The obvious and sensible-sounding response to Jeanne's question whether it
> may be possible to access other universes through dreams or hallucinations
> is that it is not really any more credible than speculation that people
can
> contact the dead, or have been kidnapped by aliens, or any other of the
> millions of weird things that so many seem to believe despite the total
lack
> of supporting evidence. However, this response is completely wrong if MWI
is
> correct. If I dream tonight that a big green monster has eaten the Sydney
> Opera House, then definitely, in some branch of the MW, a big green
monster
> will eat the Sydney Opera House. Of course, this unfortunate event will
> occur even if I *don't* dream it, but I'm not saying that my dream caused
> it, only that I saw it happening. It might also be argued that I didn't
> really "receive" this information from another branch, but that it was
just
> a coincidence that my dream matched the reality in the other branch. But
> seers don't see things by putting two and two together; they just, well,
> *see* them. And if I really could, godlike, enter at random another branch
> of the MW and return to this branch to report what I saw, how would the
> information provided be any different from my dream? The only difference I
> can think of is that with the direct method I would be more likely to
visit
> a branch with greater measure, but I can probably achieve the same thing
by
> trying not to think about green monsters when I go to sleep tonight.
>
> --Stathis Papaioannou
>
> >I once read an article in, I believe, Time Magazine, about the relatively
> >new field of "neurotheology" which investigates what goes on in the brain
> >during ecstatic states, etc. One suggestion that intrigued me was that
it
> >may be possible that in such a state, and I believe that schizophrenics
> >were
> >also mentioned, that the brain is malfunctioning in such a way as to
allow
> >it to perceive states of reality other than that which the normal brain
> >would perceive. In other words, the "antenna" (brain) is picking-up
> >signals
> >that are usually beyond the scope of the normal brain. I wondered if
> >anyone
> >could comment on this, and if there was any reason to even entertain the
> >thought that perhaps some people have passed through a crack in the
> >division
> >between our universe or dimension, into perhaps another? I read this
> >several years ago and wish that I could recall the details of the
article,
> >but I don't have it anymore.
> >
> >Jeanne
>
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Received on Thu May 12 2005 - 09:56:27 PDT