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jkaufman comments on Is our continued existence evidence that Mutually Assured Destruction worked? - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: jkaufman 18 June 2013 02:40PM

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Comment author: jkaufman 19 June 2013 08:45:19PM *  2 points [-]

Why are "observers" ontologically fundamental in these anthropic arguments?

An elaboration on the coin demon example. Let's say flipping "tails" instantly kills half the people. There are three things that can happen when the coin is flipped:

  • 50%: heads, everyone lives
  • 25%: tails, and you're lucky and live
  • 25%: tails, and you're unlucky and die

Now imagine you're looking back at a coin that was flipped earlier: 1/3 of the time you'll see tails and 2/3 you'll see heads.

If a tree falls on sleeping beauty might be useful.

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