[ExI] How to survive forever

[BillK]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 11:16 PM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Here is a small tech report I did with a colleague
> http://www.aleph.se/papers/Survival2.pdf
> (it will move to a proper home on the FHI server shortly)
>
> The result is likely not new at all, but it is pretty cute: if you gradually
> (at a logarithmic rate) make more and more backup copies you can keep your
> survival probability finite to the end of time. This works even for
> time-varying risks and some correlated risks.
>
> I just wonder if one can come up with a more secure defence against systemic
> risks than the hierarchical one we sketch near the end. Could one do
> something clever based on the Byzantine general problem?
>

I think I would query this comment.
"Wait long enough and your head will spontaneously
quantum-tunnel away from your body. Or your body will spontaneously implode
into a black hole".

I know it is a common assumption that if you wait long enough, then
*anything* might happen.
But 'long enough' is probably longer than the life of our universe, so
we can ignore the risk.

So for the sake of the theory you might be setting your risk limit
higher than is necessary in practice.

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In
practice there is."
    -- YogiBerra


BillK