This isn’t about your decision controlling them. It’s about the information gained by knowing you’re the nth person. The fact that you might not be a person doesn’t really matter, since you have to be a person for any of the possibilities mentioned.
the sum could be far below 1, if you are in fact neither of these people
P(U=m|T=n)∝1/n
That should be
a = number of nonhuman sentients.
P(U=m|T=n)∝1/(a+n)
which approaches a constant as a increases without limit.
Oops. I’ve checked this several times, and hadn’t seen that.
Let this be a lesson. When quadrillions of lives are counting on it, make sure someone double-checks your math.
I’m going to consider the ramifications of this for a while. This argument might still apply significantly. It might not.
This isn’t about your decision controlling them. It’s about the information gained by knowing you’re the nth person. The fact that you might not be a person doesn’t really matter, since you have to be a person for any of the possibilities mentioned.
That should be
a = number of nonhuman sentients.
P(U=m|T=n)∝1/(a+n)
which approaches a constant as a increases without limit.
Oops. I’ve checked this several times, and hadn’t seen that.
Let this be a lesson. When quadrillions of lives are counting on it, make sure someone double-checks your math.
I’m going to consider the ramifications of this for a while. This argument might still apply significantly. It might not.