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Manfred comments on Stupid Questions March 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Gondolinian 03 March 2015 11:37PM

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Comment author: gedymin 04 March 2015 02:58:36PM 4 points [-]

Are there any moral implications of accepting the Many Worlds interpretation, and if so what could they be?

For example, if the divergent copies of people (including myself) in other branches of Multiverse should be given non-insignificant moral status, then it's one more argument against the Epicurean principle that "as long as we exist, death is not here". My many-worlds self can die partially - that is, just in some of the worlds. So I should to reduce the number of worlds in which I'm dead. On the other hand, does it really change anything compared to "I should reduce the probability that I'm dead in this world"?

Comment author: Manfred 04 March 2015 05:05:28PM *  2 points [-]

Nope, not really. With no math, the thing is, the different "branches" take up a fraction of the world. Classically you might say "If eating cake is 2 units of utility and not eating cake is 0 units, then a 50% chance of cake is 1 unit." Quantum mechanically, you'd say "If eating cake is 2 units of utility and not eating cake is 0 units, then 50% of my current measure going to eating cake is 1 unit."

See Egan's Law.