Hal, some people make the argument that that is just more RAM, and therefore that Ockham’s Razor requires that we assert that all possible universes actually exist; i.e. the simplest claim that will result in your experiences is that all possible experiences are real.
The problem with this is that one can disprove it empirically by anthropic reasoning. If all possible universes are real—i.e. including ones with special coding for specific miracles in the next ten seconds—we should conclude with virtual certainty that the laws of physics will be violated in the next ten seconds. Since this does not typically happen, we can conclude that not all possible universes are real.
I actually use a slightly different principle for statements like that.
I call it the “preferred action principle” (or Reaper’s Law when I’m feeling pretentious)
If a possible model of reality doesn’t give me a preferred action, ie. if all actions, including inaction, are equally reasonable (and therefore, all actions are of relative utility 0) in that model, I reject that model out of hand. Not as false, but as utterly useless.
Even if it’s 3^^^3 9s certain that that is the real world, I might as well ignore that possibility, because it puts no weight into the utility calculations.
Hal, some people make the argument that that is just more RAM, and therefore that Ockham’s Razor requires that we assert that all possible universes actually exist; i.e. the simplest claim that will result in your experiences is that all possible experiences are real.
The problem with this is that one can disprove it empirically by anthropic reasoning. If all possible universes are real—i.e. including ones with special coding for specific miracles in the next ten seconds—we should conclude with virtual certainty that the laws of physics will be violated in the next ten seconds. Since this does not typically happen, we can conclude that not all possible universes are real.
I actually use a slightly different principle for statements like that.
I call it the “preferred action principle” (or Reaper’s Law when I’m feeling pretentious)
If a possible model of reality doesn’t give me a preferred action, ie. if all actions, including inaction, are equally reasonable (and therefore, all actions are of relative utility 0) in that model, I reject that model out of hand. Not as false, but as utterly useless.
Even if it’s 3^^^3 9s certain that that is the real world, I might as well ignore that possibility, because it puts no weight into the utility calculations.