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Benquo comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 16, chapter 85 - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: FAWS 18 April 2012 02:30AM

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Comment author: Benquo 07 May 2012 02:00:54PM *  1 point [-]

Much less than half the time. Remember, if Harry1 uses his time turner, he creates Universe2 with Harry2=Harry1_6_hours_ago. But in 6 hours, Harry2 will use his time turner, creating Universe3 with Harry3...

So IF there is a stable time loop of any kind, most universes will have that loop.

This raises the interesting prospect of stable sets of universes, with 6-hour histories A, B, and C. If a Harry that experiences A uses his time turner and does B, and a Harry experiencing B does C, and Harry experiencing C does A, then most copies of Harry will experience an inconsistent time loop, and it will seem like he actually went back and changed time.

If time loops are generally observed to be consistent, then this is evidence that single-state equilibria are much more probable than multiple-state equilibria.

Comment author: Benquo 07 May 2012 02:02:59PM 0 points [-]

Note that this explanation does not require Magic to simulate or calculate anything aside from creating a copy of a past state of the universe.