RE: Many Pasts? Not according to QM...

From: Jonathan Colvin <jcolvin.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:12:47 -0700

Bruno wrote:
> >> (a) A coin will be flipped tomorrow. If the result is
> heads, you will
> >> be tortured; if tails, you will not be tortured.
> >>
> >> (b) You will be copied 10 times tomorrow. One of the
> copies will be
> >> tortured, and the other 9 will not be tortured.
> >>
> >> By your reasoning, there is a 50% chance you will be
> tortured in (a)
> >> and a 100% chance you will be tortured in (b), so (a) is
> better. But
> >> I would say the probabilities are (a) 50% and
> >> (b) 10%, so (b) is clearly the better choice.
> >
> > Hmmmm...I'd disagree. Emotionally, (a) feels the better
> choice to me;
> > in (b) I'm definitely getting tortured, in (a) I may dodge
> the bullet.
> > On a purely objective basis (attempting to mimimize the amount of
> > torture in the world),
> > (a) is also obviously superior.
> >
> > This would make an interesting poll. Who prefers (a) over (b)?
>
>
> With comp, and assuming the copies will never be copied again
> and are immortal, then "b".

Ok, but why? Please explain your reasoning.

Jonathan Colvin
Received on Thu Jun 09 2005 - 18:38:59 PDT