[ExI] Many Worlds (was: A Simulation Argument)

Vladimir Nesov robotact at gmail.com
Thu Jan 17 02:06:31 UTC 2008


On Jan 17, 2008 3:04 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> >> After the coin toss, A sees heads and B sees tails. From a God's eye
> >> view, the two parallel worlds of A and B continue, with different things
> >> happening in each one. This is like the deterministic, unitary evolution
> >> of the wave function. But from your point of view, you have a 1/2
> >> chance of observing that the coin comes up heads or tails.
>
> Well, that what it *feels* like, but the truth is that you have a 100%
> chance of seeing heads, and a 100% chance of seeing tails.

Chance is a property of (or tool for) your assessment of situation.
Before the toss, you don't know the outcome, so chance is 50%. After
the toss, you know the outcome, so chance is either 0% or 100%,
depending on it. It's an equivalent interpretation, it doesn't change
semantics of probabilities. If you can directly observe terminal
outcomes and select traces leading to them, you can be sure of all
pieces of information along the way, but not so for a frog.


> Vladimir writes
>
> > Or, generalizing, there are no separate worlds. You 'select' specific
> > properties of world that you observe from overall collection of
> > interacting elements,
>
> Yes, I guess so, but saying that they aren't separate may be going
> a bit far:  we usually say that branches are separate when they
> can no longer interfere (and hence merge).

OK, in this sense they are separate, but they still contain common
substructures, and thus can be said to have 'points of contact'.
Elements of these common substructures interact (and these
interactions are equivalent to being cross-world interactions).

But likewise elements that are able to interact is a definition of
world. But definition of world needs an 'anchor' substructure, so that
it will include those elements that can interact with it. If in above
example one of common substructures is regarded as an anchor, it will
select different, but intersecting, collection of elements as its
world.


-- 
Vladimir Nesov                            mailto:robotact at gmail.com



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