[ExI] Repeated Experience (was Affecting Past Experience)

[Lee Corbin]

Mike writes

> On 7/25/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

    You know (because the computer OS has told you so) that
    your life actually consists of one-and-a-half runs. That is, the
    original execution of your life was stored, and is/was/will-be
    being replayed up to the half way point.  The OS now gleefully 
    informs you that you are arriving at the one-half point in your
    life.

    Should you be at all concerned?  After all, clearly the OS told/
    is-telling both you and the next run of you (or you and the past 
    run).  There is the nagging idea that *this* may be the 2nd run,
    and you're about to terminate forever (e.g. this will be the last
    runtime you ever get).


> If I can never have access/knowledge of the iteration counter to
> detect that the original experience is different

That's right, because then the runs wouldn't be exactly identical.

> than the second (or thousandth) then it really doesn't matter, does it?
> Where does the nagging idea come from?  That implies some psychic
> awareness of state.

I agree that one should not think of (*this) as selecting out either
the earlier or later run. Thus I agree that this "nagging idea" or
concern is misplaced. As I think Stathis mentioned, you'll naturally
and properly (to the degree that the concept can be made rational)
anticipate the experiences of the 2nd half of the first run.
 
> "terminate forever" doesn't make any sense to me either.  If you
> have a complete transactional record of every moment of your life
> recorded on some medium... then random access into any point in
> that recording for playback/continuation would be identical
> experiential "existence" as any other runtime.

By "terminate forever" I was just supposing a straw man, in the
sense of someone who really would think that (*this) could be
pointing solely to the 2nd run.   Of course, "terminate forever"
referred to an external clock time.

Yes, provided that the data comprising you always gets another chance
for more runtime, then naturally there can be no "forever" termination.
But in the scenario where you discover that you are just the plaything
of an Operating System that has spawned you, permitted you a normal
life up until now, but who you now understand plans never to run you
again, and (by hypothesis) you won't get any further runtime in our
universe, then you have to look at the prospect of true death.

:-)  Naturally, if the data isn't thrown away, then there is always the
possibility that the OS will change its mind, or that you'll be resurrected
in some other improbable way.

> This assumes the playback machine is constant.  Does a given
> space-time degrade if accessed too frequently?

Not on any assumptions I'm familiar with, or seem fruitful.

>  Is there something unique about the creation/initial render of
> space-time recordings?  (like the difference between watching
> SNL "live" and watching an episode recorded earlier) 

Not that I know of.

Lee