RE: White Rabbit vs. Tegmark

From: Lee Corbin <lcorbin.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 18:21:28 -0700

Paddy writes

> Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>
> > (b) In the multiverse, those worlds in which it is a frequent occurrence
> > that the laws of physics are temporarily suspended so that, for example,
> > talking white rabbits materialise out of thin air, may greatly
> > predominate. However, it is no surprise that we live in the orderly
> > world that we do. For in those other worlds, although observers very
> > much like us may evolve, they will certainly not spend their time
> > puzzling over the curious absence of white rabbit type phenomena. The
> > mere fact that we are having this discussion therefore necessitates that
> > we live in a world where physical laws are never violated, however
> > unlikely such a world may at first seem. This is the *extreme* anthropic
> > principle at work.

Might it not also seem more probable (upon some of the hypotheses
being entertained here) that observers *just* like us evolved, and
then just today white rabbits began to appear out of nowhere?

> Good point, this is a fundamental weakness of the AP. If you take it to
> extremes, we should not be surprised by *anything* because the entire
> history of our past light-cone to date, down to specific microscopic
> quantum events, is required in order to account for the fact that you and
> I are having this particular exchange.

But is "the entire history... down to quantum events" really
necessary to account for this exchange? I say this because the
set of all the observer moments *this* seems to require covers
so many possibilities, including schizophrenia, etc. But...
this being so tricky, how may I have misunderstood?

Lee

> To give the AP force, you have to
> work on the most general possible level (hence it was a big mistake for
> Barrow & Tipler to restrict it to "carbon-based life forms" in their book,
> certainly not in line with Brandon Carter's original thought).
>
> Paddy Leahy
Received on Wed May 25 2005 - 21:30:56 PDT