A very good summary of the problems faced by SSA. However I think saying SSA metaphysically means God is dead set on creating Alice/Bob may be a bit unfair. The premise is simply “I have to conclude myself exist/ I can only find myself exist”, which in itself is hardly wrong. It’s SSA’s way of interpreting this premise leads to the problems mentioned. (Full disclosure, I am not supporting SSA at all. But not liking SIA either)
In daily language, “I” or “self” can mean two different things. In a strict indexical sense, they just mean the first-person, whoever the perspective might be. But very often it is understood as a particular physical person, identified by some features such as the name Bob. The two meanings are constantly used together. i.e. if we are talking, I could say “I’m hungry”, and in your mind it would probably be understood as “dadadarren is hungry”. Even though the two meanings are often used, the distinction is important.
Halfers would say, I will use halfers instead of SSA-ers as it is more general, it is not Bob or Alice that has to exist. It is the first-person that doing the thinking must exist. The problem is how to explain this first-person. SSA’s answer: consider it as a random sample of all exist observers. I think that’s wrong. The first-person is something inherently understood from any perspective. “I’m this person, living in this time” is a reasoning starting point that does not need nor have an explanation. The paradoxes are caused by our habit of reasoning from a god’s eye view, even though anthropic problems are based on a specific person or moment, i.e. specific perspectives
A very good summary of the problems faced by SSA. However I think saying SSA metaphysically means God is dead set on creating Alice/Bob may be a bit unfair. The premise is simply “I have to conclude myself exist/ I can only find myself exist”, which in itself is hardly wrong. It’s SSA’s way of interpreting this premise leads to the problems mentioned. (Full disclosure, I am not supporting SSA at all. But not liking SIA either)
In daily language, “I” or “self” can mean two different things. In a strict indexical sense, they just mean the first-person, whoever the perspective might be. But very often it is understood as a particular physical person, identified by some features such as the name Bob. The two meanings are constantly used together. i.e. if we are talking, I could say “I’m hungry”, and in your mind it would probably be understood as “dadadarren is hungry”. Even though the two meanings are often used, the distinction is important.
Halfers would say, I will use halfers instead of SSA-ers as it is more general, it is not Bob or Alice that has to exist. It is the first-person that doing the thinking must exist. The problem is how to explain this first-person. SSA’s answer: consider it as a random sample of all exist observers. I think that’s wrong. The first-person is something inherently understood from any perspective. “I’m this person, living in this time” is a reasoning starting point that does not need nor have an explanation. The paradoxes are caused by our habit of reasoning from a god’s eye view, even though anthropic problems are based on a specific person or moment, i.e. specific perspectives