AllanCrossman comments on On dollars, utility, and crack cocaine - Less Wrong

13 Post author: PhilGoetz 04 April 2009 12:00AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 April 2009 12:16:03PM 0 points [-]

On a whim, I once played the lottery on the theory that the Many Worlds Interpretation is true, and some branch of me would win. I like to think he's out there somewhere.

Did you use a quantum random number generator?

(Of course, if MWI really is true, then some other me in some other branch would have played the lottery even if I hadn't, so strictly speaking I didn't even need to...)

There's no law of physics stating that you make all possible decisions in different MWI branches, though sufficiently different people who otherwise resemble you might.

Comment author: AllanCrossman 04 April 2009 01:05:43PM 0 points [-]

Did you use a quantum random number generator?

Alas no. I was thinking that, if bought sufficiently far in advance, quantum noise and chaos theory together would ensure that any ticket would win in some branch...

(But yes, I see now that making the choice of ticket itself depend on quantum noise would have been better... hmm...)

Comment author: Annoyance 04 April 2009 02:09:45PM -2 points [-]

In some paths, you used a quantum number generator to decide... in others, you didn't.

In some paths, you conclude that you don't have to do anything because of Many Worlds, and so you simply stop doing. In others, you do not reach that conclusion. In still others, you actively reject it... and in some, you reach the conclusion but continue to do anyway.

Even giving up because nothing means anything is meaningless.

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