red75 comments on Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease - Less Wrong

236 Post author: Yvain 30 May 2010 09:16PM

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Comment author: red75 19 June 2010 06:04:47AM *  1 point [-]

I'm not sure that I sufficiently understand you. "Fated" implies that no matter what one do, one will end up as fate dictates, right? In other words: in all counterfactual universes one's fate is same. Predetermination I speak of is different. It is a property of deterministic universe: all events are determined by initial conditions only.

When Alice decides what she will order she can construct in her mind bunch of different universes, and predetermination doesn't mean that in all those constructed universes she will get fettucini, predetermination means that only one constructed universe will be factual. As I proved in previous post Alice cannot know in advance which constructed universe is factual. Alice cannot know that she's in universe A where she's predetermined to eat fettucini, or that she's in universe B where she's to eat eggplant. And her decision process is integral part of each of these universes.

Without her decision universe A cannot be universe A.

So her decision is crucial part of causal chain.

Did I answer your question?

Edit: spellcheck.

Comment author: RobinZ 19 June 2010 02:20:58PM 1 point [-]

I don't like the connotations, but sure - that's a mathematically consistent definition.