Jack comments on A note on the description complexity of physical theories - Less Wrong

19 Post author: cousin_it 09 November 2010 04:25PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (177)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Jack 11 November 2010 04:32:45AM *  0 points [-]

Except the whole quantum suicide thing does create payoff structures. In determining weather or not to play a game of Quantum Russian Roulette you take your estimated winnings for playing if MWI and Quantum immortality is true and your estimated winnings if MWI or Quantum immortality is false and weigh them according to the probability you assign each theory.

(ETA: But this seems to be a quirky feature of QM interpretation, not a feature of empirically equivalent theories generally.)

(ETA 2: And it is a quirky feature of QM interpretation because MWI+Quantum Immortality is empirically equivalent to single world theories is a really quirky way.)

Comment author: cousin_it 11 November 2010 04:52:13AM *  1 point [-]

IMO quantum suicide/immortality is so mysterious that it can't support any definite conclusions about the topic we're discussing. I'm beginning to view it as a sort of thread-killer, like "consciousness". See a comment that mentions QI, collapse the whole thread because you know it's not gonna make you happier.

Comment author: Jack 11 November 2010 05:04:47AM 0 points [-]

I agree that neither we nor anyone else do a good job discussing it. It seems like a pretty important issue though.