From: Marc Geddes (marc_geddes@yahoo.co.nz)
Date: Fri Dec 10 2004 - 23:35:52 MST
--- Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com>
wrote:
>
> On Dec 10, 2004, at 10:57 PM, Marc Geddes wrote:
>
> > Hope no one here is annoyed by this, but I have to
> ask
> > the question, since many here profess to believe
> in
> > the 'Many Worlds' interpretation of qauntum
> mechanics,
> > yet at the same time, several leading
> transhumanists
> > (Eli and Klein) were recently lamenting the death
> of
> > loved ones.
> >
> > Isn't it really the case that lost loved ones have
> > *not* in fact been obliterated, *if* in fact, MWI
> is
> > true? Their consciousness has simply concentrated
> in
> > the QM branches where they survived has it not?
>
> One answer: you're thinking of MWI on too high a
> level.
> There must be more universes which differ only in a
> single
> particle position than there are particles in the
> universe.
> Those who have died in our universe are dead in more
> universes, therefore, than that, even. There is no
> "nearby"
> universe where things are different on a human
> scale.
I'm not sure I follow you. Whether there are any
"nearby" universes where things are different on a
human scale surely depends on how far into the past
the QM fluctuation ultimately responsible for the
death of the loved one ocurred?
Example: The quantum suicide experiment. Suppose I
toss a 'quantum coin' and immediately commit suicide
if it's head. Then clearly, in 50% of time-tacks I'm
dead, 50% I live. But the 50% time-tracks where I'm
dead would diverge from the 50% live time tracks only
from that time on.
>
> Another answer: it doesn't make any difference that
> copies
> exist, if this copy dies. If you were copied down
> to the
> molecular level right now (certainly closer than any
> of the
> MW copies would be to those who died, by
> definition), it
> wouldn't be okay, in any sense, if either the
> original or
> the copy died. Consciousness isn't "spread across"
> all
> close copies of a person; it's a separate process
> (except
> for actual quantum interference) for each person
> involved.
Quantum decoherence is not total. The different 'time
tracks' (phrase is just an analogy anyway) are not
totally seperate from each other. I don't think you
can point to one particular 'time track' and say:
'that version of me is ME'.
You're right that it's not O.K that some copies have
died. But if the death was a low probability event
then in most time tracks it wouldn't actuallyhave
happened. Most of the copies would still be alive.
=====
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- Gen. John Stark
"The Universe...or nothing!"
-H.G.Wells
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