Re: Thought Experiments About Copies
jamesr@best.com
Mon, 4 Nov 1996 16:53:23 +0000
>
> Suppose an exact duplicate of the earth, and it's entire ecosystem,
> were made a billion light years away. The duplicate world
> would need some sort of feedback mechanism to keep the worlds
> in synchronization, non linear effects would amplify tiny variations,
> even quantum fluctuations, into big differences, but this is just a
> thought experiment so who cares. In the first two cases below the results
> would vary according to personalities, remember there's a lot of illogic
> even in the best of us.
>
> 3) I know nothing about the duplicate world, a gun is at both our heads
> and we are both convinced we're going to die. One gun goes off,
> making a hell of a mess, but the other gun for inexplicable reasons
> misfires. In this case NOBODY died and except for undergoing a terrifying
> experience I am completely unharmed.
>
Very interesting experiment. After much consideration, I look at it
this way:
After one duplicate was killed, from your viewpoint, no one would
have died.
>From the viewpoint of some observers, however, you did die.
I guess this would mean that the consciousness of the observers would
no longer be synchronized between the two worlds, since you are dead
and not dead at the same time to the observers, depending on who you
ask.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com