Caledonian2 comments on How Many LHC Failures Is Too Many? - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 September 2008 09:38PM

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Comment author: Caledonian2 21 September 2008 06:05:37PM 0 points [-]

IMHO if anthropics worked that way and if the LHC really were a world-killer, you'd find yourself in a world where we had the propensity not to build the LHC, not one where we happened not to build one due to a string of improbable coincidences.

Incorrect reasoning; every branching compatible with sentient organisms contains sentient organisms monitoring its conditions.

The organisms that are in branchings in which LHC facilities were built perceive themselves to be in such a world, no matter how improbable it is. It doesn't matter if it's quite unlikely for you to win a lottery -- if you do win a lottery, you'll eventually accumulate enough data to conclude that's precisely what's happened.