[ExI] Repeated Experience (was Affecting Past Experience)

[Russell Wallace]

On 7/25/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
>    Now actually, the pointer (*this) in my opinion must refer equally
>    to this point in both runs. But to me, I am faced with the prospect
>    of  my runtime suddenly getting cut in half.  This is exactly how the
>    MWI devotee feels regarding a sudden fifty-fifty chance of
>    imminent death:   in half the universes he's okay, and in the other
>    half he dies immediately.  For me, I have a sort of fancy
>    "Many Worlds Normalization Principle" which asserts that with
>    very few exceptions, one ought to regard our feelings the same
>    whether or not Many Worlds is true.  In particular, having a 50/50
>    chance of death---which ordinarily of course makes people worry
>    greatly---should be regarded as a 50% reduction in measure over
>    a sheath of worlds.


Yes, I agree with that. Indeed, while the two are logically equivalent, on
an emotional level I find measure accounting a more useful way to think of
it, being more conducive to calmly optimizing for expected utility across
all outcomes (as opposed to fruitlessly trying to deny any chance of a bad
outcome).
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