[extropy-chat] Role of MWI and Time Travel

[Lee Corbin]

Anna writes

> > Lee Corbin:
> > I agree with [Russell] in the strictest meanings of terms; but in
> > the example I gave where (for example) in the "physics" of Thomas
> > Aquinas both souls exist and uncaused decisions are the norm,
> > "uncaused decision" is not an oxymoron. It's simply an incorrect
> > description of the real world.
> 
> Anna asks:
> So what do you think is an inscription of the real world is?

I have to admit that I was puzzled for a long time by this question.
It's a very intriguing one: just what would an inscription of the
real world be?

All sorts of thoughts came to mind, but I finally remembered
Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony".  In that story,
the prisoners of an island penal colony were strapped on top
of a large machine as a final part of their punishment. This
machine would then slowly make mechanical passes over the
prisoner's back with some very sharp blades. At first, the
blades would pass only very close to the skin, but finally,
slowly, they'd move closer and closer, and then on succeeding
passes begin to enter deeper and deeper into the prisoner's flesh.

What the blades were doing was literally inscribing a 
message onto the prisoner's back, each pass going a little
deeper, and causing more pain. (There even was ancillary
equipment to wash away the blood.) This message would have
to do with the nature of the crime committed by the felon.
I always imagined that it would write something like "Thou
shalt not Steal", or "Crime does not Pay", or something
along that line.

Eventually, so the narrator declares, after many hours the
victim's eyes would begin to shine with a certain understanding,
gleaned slowly during the torture: then, at last, just before he
dies, the prisoner is able to *understand* the message.

So what would an inscription of the real world be?  Well, don't
forget the Nazca drawings in Peru!  That was pass one!  On each
succeeding pass, the aliens will write just a little deeper,
until humans finally---just before the Earth is destroyed---
get the message.

That, I think, would be an inscription of the real world is.

By the way, it was Russell, not I, who wrote the following
definition:

> Lee Corbin writes:
>  I will claim that my definition (which I'm glad you like,
> btw) _is_ the everyday meaning of the term (and therefore
> that free will does exist in the everyday meaning).
> 
> Again just being curious:)
> Anna
> Thanks 

You're welcome!  Thanks for the fun question.  Sorry if my answer
was a little Kafkaesque.

Lee