From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 23:46:16 MST
Lee writes:
> So in the duplication chamber experiment
> where we are talking today, and tomorrow you enter the
> chamber, then your life stream will be suddenly expanded
> by a factor of 100 then diminished by the same factor, and
> you and I agree that it's back to what it was. Whereas in
> MWI, one loses an irretrievable .99 of all of one's life-
> paths. There is tragedy in the latter, but not in the
> former.
Yes, I think even a believer in the MWI would fight to avoid a loss of 99%
of his possible futures. If nothing else, evolution would drive him to
that strategy, as in fact it has if the MWI is true.
This also suggests that when it becomes possible, people might fight
as hard to gain a 100-fold increase in possibilities as to avoid a
100-fold loss. In the past this wasn't really an option. But in the
future, having a duplicate made may be as strong a positive option as
facing a 50% chance of death is on the negative side. In fact you
would trade off one for the other at even odds, roughly.
Imagine something so valuable that you would accept a 50% chance of dying
in order to achieve it! Making a copy of yourself may become just that
valuable, once evolution is done with us.
I suppose that it has already happened to some extent; many people would
face a substantial chance of death in order to save enough copies of
their genes in their children or siblings. The love of a mother for her
child will be small compared to the love of a person for his duplicate.
Hal
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