[SEQ RERUN] Living in Many Worlds

MinibearRex

Today's post, Living in Many Worlds was originally published on 05 June 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The many worlds of quantum mechanics are not some strange, alien universe into which you have been thrust. They are where you have always lived. Egan's Law: "It all adds up to normality." Then why care about quantum physics at all? Because there's still the question of what adds up to normality, and the answer to this question turns out to be, "Quantum physics." If you're thinking of building any strange philosophies around many-worlds, you probably shouldn't - that's not what it's for.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Why Quantum?, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Living in Many Worlds was originally published on 05 June 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The many worlds of quantum mechanics are not some strange, alien universe into which you have been thrust. They are where you have always lived. Egan's Law: "It all adds up to normality." Then why care about quantum physics at all? Because there's still the question of what adds up to normality, and the answer to this question turns out to be, "Quantum physics." If you're thinking of building any strange philosophies around many-worlds, you probably shouldn't - that's not what it's for.

I wish he would elaborate on the reason(s) for this suspicion

I wish he did, too, though "adding up to normality" is probably enough of a hint.

a straightforward consequence of MWI plus the anthropic principle.

Right, combine two ideas with zero predictive power each...

quantum immortality seems to me like a straightforward consequence of MWI plus the anthropic principle.

Right, combine two ideas with zero predictive power each...

They can't possibly have zero predictive power if together they make a prediction...

3Jack14y

Whether or not it is true, quantum immortality doesn't conflict with normality.

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