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Mitchell_Porter comments on The Doubling Box - Less Wrong
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This is a thought experiment which is not meant to be possible in our world. But such thought experiments are a way of testing the generality of your decision procedures - do they work in all possible worlds? If you must imagine a physics that makes the eternal doubling possible, try picturing a network of replicating baby universes linked by wormholes.
As in the old saw, part of your strength as a real decision-maker is that your decision procedures choose less well in impossible worlds than in possible worlds.
A world that can support paperclip production of arbitrary magnitude is not an impossible world. The speed of light is a contingent fact.
Why does that have to be true?
It doesn't have to be true. It's desirable because decision procedures that rely on other knowledge about reality are faster/better/cheaper than ones that don't import knowledge about reality. Specialization for the situation you find yourself in is often useful, though it does limit flexibility.