Jonathan Colvin writes:
>Stathis wrote:
> >When you press the button in the torture room, there is a 50%
> >chance that your next moment will be in the same room and and
> >a 50% chance that it will be somewhere else where you won't be
> >tortured. However, this constraint has been added to the
> >experiment: suppose you end up the copy still in the torture
> >room whenever you press the button. After all, it is certain
> >that there will be a copy still in the room, however many
> >times the button is pressed. Should this unfortunate person
> >choose the coin toss instead?
>
>If he shares your beliefs about identity, then if he changes his mind he
>will be be comitting the gambler's fallacy.
>
>However, after having pressed the button 100 times and with nothing to show
>for it except 100 tortures, his faith that he is a random observer might be
>shaken :).
Yes, but do you agree it is the same for any probabilistic experiment in a
many worlds cosmology? If you sit down and toss a coin 100 times in a row,
there will definitely be one version of you who has obtained 100 heads in a
row, just as there will definitely be one version of you (the one still in
the torture room) who has nothing to show after pushing the button 100
times.
--Stathis Papaioannou
_________________________________________________________________
Single? Start dating at Lavalife. Try our 7 day FREE trial!
http://lavalife9.ninemsn.com.au/clickthru/clickthru.act?context=an99&locale=en_AU&a=19179
Received on Wed Jun 22 2005 - 22:43:31 PDT