OrphanWilde comments on False vacuum: the universe playing quantum suicide - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 09 January 2013 05:04PM

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Comment author: OrphanWilde comment score below threshold [+] (7 children)

Comment author: FeepingCreature 09 January 2013 06:44:07PM * 0 points [-]

Entangling with it won't hurt you; not entangling with it won't save you. When the event happens, you'll be entangled with it either way, and with the same probability to boot.

Though I don't expect such a detector to ever show that our universe will end within two months (and take bets to that tune), since - well, if I predict it'll end and it does, the me in that universe won't have significant time to enjoy being right.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 09 January 2013 07:12:59PM 1 point [-]

Your response implicitly rejects quantum immortality/quantum suicide. My comment is predicated on an assumption of these things.

Comment author: FeepingCreature 10 January 2013 10:22:56AM 0 points [-]

No it doesn't.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 10 January 2013 12:36:23PM 1 point [-]

Yes it does. Quantum immortality, for example, is a semi-ideological statement of belief that you -can't- get personally entangled with your death; whatever information you have to believe you're dying will simply turn out to be false, no matter how improbable.

Comment author: FeepingCreature 10 January 2013 01:56:05PM * 0 points [-]

Right, so measuring it no matter how far in advance will always show that the world-destroying event won't happen. It doesn't matter when you entangle with it.

(Or at least that's the version that all your surviving versions will end up remembering)

Comment author: OrphanWilde 10 January 2013 02:51:47PM 0 points [-]

What measure have the doomed, then?

I mean, imagine building such a detector, and seeing your oncoming doom. I'm not sure how much reassurance the thought that other copies of you who didn't see their doom will continue on would provide you; they're not you, you're the you stuck in a doomed universe. In two months, you will simply cease to be. You can't even warn the other you's to shut down their machine; not only do you know you are doomed, you know that countless other you's will be trapped in the same dilemma.

Comment author: FeepingCreature 10 January 2013 08:27:59PM * 0 points [-]

Yeah but doesn't this expose an inconsistency in your view of quantum suicide? At least there's some really counterintuitive things if you look at it that way - like, that you should refuse to acquire some data, or that if faced with "doom in ten months or doom now" you would prefer the "doom now" - I think any theory that acts so at odds with the rest of reason has to be doing something wrong.

Personally, I simply expect to never find myself in the situation where my doom is inevitable, and it's paid off so far.

If I find myself in the doomed branch, I'll say "yes this sucks for me, but I am merely a negligible fraction of the future that past-me was responsible for, so I still maintain that his decision was the right one".

OrphanWilde comments on False vacuum: the universe playing quantum suicide - Less Wrong

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