From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Nov 19 2002 - 10:57:00 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
>> 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?
Why bother with a random number generator? I grant you a license to use
my bifurcation chamber technology in your 999/1000 die chamber. So then
Subject-0 walks into the chamber and effectively becomes an observer of
a subatomic experiment that has 1000 equally probable outcomes. Each
outcome is observed by one alternate of the observer, as in MWI, and all
1000 alternate observers from Subject-1 to Subject-1000 are retained in
this universe inside the chamber. 999 of those outcomes lead to
immediate death for the observer, such that only one observer emerges
from the chamber. He will be subject-n where n is a random number
greater than 0 and less than 1001.
>> 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.
It could be important because none of the 1000 alternates are exactly
alike due to their difference experiences.
> 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.
It's no more odd than MWI is odd. You flip a coin and get heads. An
alternate of you is experiencing tails in an alternate universe. Why are
you experiencing heads and not tails? This is the same question you are
asking me.
> Moreover, the others are *not* you.
Right. They look like me and share my *nominal* identity. But they do
not share my *non-nominal* identity, which includes my body and
perceptions.
If I could travel to an alternate universe, I could kill your alternate
there without killing you. This is so because your alternate is *not
you*. The same would be true if I brought your alternate to this
universe and killed him here. You would survive, because your alternate
is *not you*.
> 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?
No.
-gts
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