From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Fri Mar 05 2004 - 17:50:18 MST
Even if all possible universes "exist" in Tegmark's sense, this doesn't
imply that all possible patterns in universes are equally likely. This
is the point of "attractors" -- some patterns are more likely to emerge
in more Tegmarkian universes because they tend to be attractors
(speaking loosely) of universal dynamics. The "universal morality" in
this perspective becomes a "metaversal morality" which contains the
ethical rules that appear to be followed by the pattern dynamics in the
vast majority of universes.
-- Ben G
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org] On Behalf Of
> EvolverTCB@aol.com
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 6:54 PM
> To: sl4@sl4.org
> Subject: RE: Ethics of the Cosmos
>
> Ben G wrote:
> "choices that are more in harmony with the intrinsic nature of the
> universe, are more likely to be actualizable."
>
> Based on what I read in Tegmark's Sci Am article on alternate
universes
> last year, all possibilities do, it would seem , exist. For example
there
> is an exact clone of you somewhere within about three Hubble volumes.
> Where can 'God' and 'morality' fit into a reality of this sort?
> The only sane interpretations I can find among major religions are in
> Buddhist and other Eastern literature; here we find sohpisticated
ideas
> about figure/ground relationships, cycles of creation and destruction,
> personal choice and integration into a whole that is somehow mind and
more
> than mind. Personal responsibility, yes. But no angry bearded
Nobodaddy
> hurling bolts at sinners.
>
> Morality then becomes "What path do I choose from those that seem
> possible?" "What kind of world do I choose to create/embody/seek?"
"What
> kind of person do I have to be to exist in that sort of world?"
> If the cosmos as a whole has an ethic, it might well be "Here's stuff.
You
> break it, you buy it."
> But, as the I Ching says, no blame.
>
> Question: do some paths inevitably end well, others not? How much
choice
> do we actually have?
> If dead and buried = 0% free will
> and God-like powers = 100% free will
> the we must be somewhere in between (can't fly unassisted, etc.)
> and even old Nobodaddy (Wm. Blake's coinage) can't violate logic (cf.
the
> old Catholic-school question "Faddah, can God make a rock so big he
can't
> lift it?")
> I just can't get away from the idea that we are only choosing pathways
> that always existed (yep, Permutation City...)
> Tom Buckner
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