Gabriel comments on I notice that I am confused about Identity and Resurrection - Less Wrong

40 Post author: ialdabaoth 14 November 2013 08:38PM

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

Comments (80)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Gabriel 15 November 2013 12:29:47AM 6 points [-]

"Umm... that... let me think. I suppose, that personal identity cannot be contained within the history of choices that have been made, because for every choice that has been made, if it was truly a 'choice' at all, it was also made the other way in some other tributary of the Great Tao."

I don't like that part at all. As far as I understand those things, just now almost all of your measure/amplitude/whatever went into the version of you that didn't spontaneously stand up and jump out of the window and the difference between that and what would happen in a completely deterministic universe (in which you also wouldn't have jumped) doesn't seem very important.

In fact, I think that the less determined your actions are, the less they are 'choices'. Not jumping out of the window because a quantum coin came up heads may be more 'free' in some sense but if its independent from your past mental states then it's not really something 'you' do.