khafra comments on References & Resources for LessWrong - Less Wrong

90 Post author: XiXiDu 10 October 2010 02:54PM

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Comment author: khafra 14 October 2010 08:12:22PM *  1 point [-]

The way I understand quantum suicide, it's supposed to force your future survival into the relatively scarce branches where an event goes the way you want it by making it dependent on that event. Killing yourself after living in the branch where that event did not go the way you wanted at some time in the past is just ordinary suicide; although there's certainly room for a new category along the lines of "counterfactual quantum suicide," or something.

edit: Although, to the extent that counterfactual quantum suicide would only occur to someone who'd heard of traditional, orthodox quantum suicide, the latter would be a memetic hazard.

Comment author: XiXiDu 15 October 2010 08:43:06AM *  0 points [-]

What difference does it make if you kill yourself before event X, event X kills you or if you commit suicide after event X? In all cases the branches in which event X does not take place are selected for. That is, if agent Y always commits suicide if event X or is killed by event X then the only branches to include Y are those in which X does not happen.

Comment author: khafra 17 October 2010 03:00:52AM 1 point [-]

The difference, to me, is how you define the difference between quantum suicide and classical suicide. Everett's daughter killing herself in all universes where she outlived him only sounds like quantum suicide to me if her death was linked to his in a mechanical and immediate manner; otherwise, with her suffering in the non-preferred universe for a while, it just sounds like plain old suicide.

Comment author: wedrifid 17 October 2010 03:10:58AM -1 points [-]

The difference between quantum and classical seems to be distinct from that between painless and painful.