From: Marc Geddes (marc_geddes@yahoo.co.nz)
Date: Sun Dec 12 2004 - 19:57:40 MST
--- maru <marudubshinki@gmail.com> wrote:
> Here's a flaw Marc: What you are essentially trying
> to do is shift the
> 'average' of the multiverse by making it less likely
> that
> important people could be killed repeatedly in
> closely related
> universes, right, and shifting it presumably for the
> better.
>
> Now, I have no physics degree, but it seems to me
> there are two problems
> with your idea: The first is universes diverge
> pretty quickly
> (chaotically)-there are a lot of possiblities to
> explore, so any even
> drastic action would affect only a few. The second
> is better:
> Doesn't MWI say that *all* possible universes exist?
> So how could you
> possibly affect the totality? All you could do is
> maybe improve
> your own local universe (the essence of altruism,
> neh?), in which case
> your suggestion is null, since flipping 50-50
> between two routes
> to work equally likely to kill you isn't going to
> help anything.
>
> ~Maru
Universes don't naturally diverge that quickly.
Quantum indeterminacy does gradually cause significant
divergence on the human scale, but only over a time
scale of years I think. You would be getting much
greater divergence by directly linking some of your
decisions to quantum events as I suggested.
And you're not *shifting* the average of the
multiverse, your actions are *determining* what the
average will be. Think about it. You've commited the
'fatalism' fallacy. If you thought that nothing you
could do would matter you'd just sit around. You
can't *change* the future, but the actions you take do
help *determine* what the future is. And you don't in
fact know what actions you will take until you decide.
=====
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