[extropy-chat] Mangled Worlds

[Robin Hanson]

At 01:00 PM 2/26/2006, Lee Corbin wrote:
> > Your picture seems to be of big worlds that spit off tiny worlds which then
> > immediately start to become mangled.
>
>But we are trying to reconcile your results with previous notions of a
>"fraying" multiverse. That is, in David Deutsch's view (and MWI in general)
>at any point in a universe we are inhabiting, there is a small amplitude
>for almost anything to occur. Hence the "spitting off" of tiny worlds.
>To what degree do you reject this standard MWI way of looking at it?

You are talking about small relative magnitude in a specific split.  I agree
that such things exist, but I am trying to focus attention on the overall
absolute magnitude of a world, regardless of its last split.

> > Instead picture grains of dust which slowly float and grind each other
> > into smaller pieces, until a big cloud of them smash into an airless moon.
> > Under this picture most of the experience in the small worlds is in the
> > floating phase, and only a small part in the smash phase.
>
>But then, I take it, most of one's experience then should be in the major
>measure "airless moons" of vast mass and high probability. If so, then
>this too tends to diminish expectations of getting mangled.

They challenge is to show *why* most experience follow from the few large
worlds.

>Besides, if I recall correctly, you or someone objected to a certain
>popularization of your idea, namely that there is a reasonable chance
>that after a few more years of placid existence, the world we
>inhabit may get snuffed. Is that really a consequence of your theory?

Yes.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323