From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Nov 18 2002 - 23:36:06 MST
gts writes
> Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > Why not go back to my post and answer the questions
> > it has? You'll see that something preternatural is
> > going on when you realize that you survive your trip
> > through the 1000-way duplication chamber. Here is
> > the post again, for your ready convenience:
> >
> http://www.extropy.org/exi-lists/extropians/0211/17407.html
>
> OK, but I don't think you're going to find anything different in my
> answer that you haven't already seen...
;-) Yes, true. But it is narrowing down the difficulty,
I think.
> > Inside the 1000-way duplication chamber exactly
> > a thousand gts-like creatures roam, but only one
> > of them is you. When the random choice is made,
> > then if and only if that particular one is chosen
> > do you survive. Still correct?
>
> Essentially correct.
>
> > Let us say that you are #731 so that if #333 or
> > any other number besides 731 is chosen, then you
> > fail to survive the duplication chamber exactly
> > in the same manner as you fail to survive the
> > helicopter ride in 25% of the cases. Okay so far?
>
> Okay, though I do not like your use of the word "chosen." It implies
> volition.
No, I meant that there is a random number generator
in the room that selects which of the 1000 is to
survive. All right?
> The decision as to which 999 of the 1000 is killed is not
> dependent on choice or volition.
Yes.
> > Now what several of us are dying to know, so to speak, is
> > in what manner #731 is special?
>
> 731 is not special any more than the number 7 is special when you roll
> the dice and get 7. It is purely random.
>
> > According to physics there is nothing at all to
> > distinguish #731 from #333 or any of the others.
>
> Each observer is experiencing a different outcome, 999 of 1000 of which
> lead to immediate death.
>
> > I want to know what is special about #731. Why is it here, today,
> > before you have even entered the duplication chamber that one
> > particular one of them (maybe not 731 but some other number)
> > is special? Just how is it that you fail to survive unless one
> > particular number is selected to survive?
>
> I don't know about "special." However according to the physics of MWI
> each of the 1000 would experience a different outcome.
Of course they would, if we are to be really picky
and I understand you. What is important is the odd
fact that to you *one* of them is distinguished by
having a certain property that none of the others
possess. Namely, it is you. Moreover, the others
are *not* you. This is most strange. How can it be,
if they were physically identical at their moment of
creation, that one of them got picked out or charged
with being you?
> In your chamber, 999 of 1000 experimental outcomes
> include disintegration of the observer. Thus I have
> a .001 probability of surviving the chamber.
I think that I know what is going on. Is it true that
when you think about this thought experiment you visualize
how the chamber would look from the inside?
Lee
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