Hal Finney writes:
>Stathis Papaioannou writes:
> > Hal Finney writes:
> > >Suppose you will again be simultaneously teleported to Washington
> > >and Moscow. This time you will have just one copy waking up in each.
> > >Then you will expect 50-50 odds. But suppose that after one hour,
> > >the copy in Moscow gets switched to the parallel computer so it is
> > >running with 10 times the measure; 10 copies. And suppose that you
>know
> > >beforehand that during that high-measure time period (after one hour)
> > >in Moscow you will experience some event E.
> >
> > Again, it's a two step process, each time considering the next moment.
> > First, 50% chance of waking up in either Moscow or Washington. Second,
>100%
> > chance of experiencing E in Moscow or 0% chance of experiencing E in
> > Washington. The timing is crucial, or the probabilities are completely
> > different.
>
>Doesn't this approach run into problems if we start reducing the time
>interval before the extra copying in Moscow? From one hour, to one
>second, to one millisecond? At what point does your phenomenological
>expectation switch over from 90% Washington to 90% Moscow? And does
>it do so discontinuously, or is there a point at which you are "just
>barely" conscious enough in Moscow before the secondary duplication,
>that perhaps the two probabilities balance?
The time interval is the minimum time interval for you to experience a
conscious moment, which is also the minimum interval for two exact copies to
diverge so that they are no longer "identical". It is the same question as
how long you can be "alive" as the original in a teleportation thought
experiment before you mind being killed. I would say that if you walk out of
the teleportation booth and then someone comes along and shoots you a minute
later, that's bad, because you have had time to become a "different" person
since the teleportation and the teleported copy no longer provides
continuity of consciousness. It could be argued that there would only be a
minute of experience lost and maybe it doesn't matter, but I would agree
with your (HF) previous post on just this question that it *does* matter.
Similarly with whether there is a sharp or gradual transition: I think there
would be a sharp transition between the point where you wouldn't notice if
you got shot and the point where you would mind very much. I am not sure
exactly what the smallest possible conscious interval is, but it would
certainly be longer than a millisecond and shorter than a second.
>I am doubtful that this approach works.
>
>Jesse Mazer suggested backwards causation, that the secondary copying in
>Moscow would influence the perceptual expectation of waking up in Moscow
>even before it happens. So he would say 90% Moscow from the beginning.
>However I think that has problems if we allow amnesia to occur in Moscow
>before the amplification.
>
>I have been enjoying these discussions but unfortunately I will have to
>take leave, I am going on vacation with the family for a week so I will
>have little chance to participate during that time. I'll look forward
>to catching up when I return -
I wish I were unfortunate enough to have to take leave! I have been enjoying
these discussions too, and hope you have a good break.
--Stathis Papaioannou
_________________________________________________________________
Sell your car for $9 on carpoint.com.au
http://www.carpoint.com.au/sellyourcar
Received on Wed Jun 22 2005 - 22:34:18 PDT