You can get some weird things if you are doing some weird experiment on yourself where you are becoming a Schrödinger cat and doing some weird stuff like that, you can get a situation where multiple copies of you exist. But if you’re not doing anything like that, you’re just one branch, one copy of everything.
Why does it matter that you are doing a weird experiment, versus the universe implicitly doing the experiment for you via decoherence? If someone else did the experiment on you without your knowledge, does infrabayesianism expect one copy or multiple copies?
By “weird experiment” I mean things like, reversing decoherence. That is, something designed to cause interference between branches of the wavefunction with minds that remember different experiences[1]. Which obviously requires levels of technology we are nowhere near to reaching[2]. As long as decoherence happens as usual, there is only one copy.
There is a possible “shortcut” though, namely simulating minds on quantum computers. Naturally, in this case only the quantum-uploaded-minds can have multiple copies.
The wavefunction has other branches, because it’s the same mathematical object governed by the same equations. Only, the wavefunction doesn’t exist physically, it’s just an intermediate variable in the computation. The things that exist (corresponding to the Φ variable in the formalism) and the things that are experienced (corresponding to some function of the 2Γ variable in the formalism) only have one branch.
So in a “weird experiment”, the infrabayesian starts by believing only one branch exists, and then at some point starts believing in multiple branches?
Multiple branches can only exist transiently during the weird experiment (i.e. neither before nor after). Naturally, if the agent knows in advance the experiment is going to happen, then it anticipates those branches to appear.
Why does it matter that you are doing a weird experiment, versus the universe implicitly doing the experiment for you via decoherence? If someone else did the experiment on you without your knowledge, does infrabayesianism expect one copy or multiple copies?
By “weird experiment” I mean things like, reversing decoherence. That is, something designed to cause interference between branches of the wavefunction with minds that remember different experiences[1]. Which obviously requires levels of technology we are nowhere near to reaching[2]. As long as decoherence happens as usual, there is only one copy.
Ofc it requires erasing their contradicting memories among other things.
There is a possible “shortcut” though, namely simulating minds on quantum computers. Naturally, in this case only the quantum-uploaded-minds can have multiple copies.
If there aren’t other branches, then shouldn’t that be impossible? Not just in practice but in principle.
The wavefunction has other branches, because it’s the same mathematical object governed by the same equations. Only, the wavefunction doesn’t exist physically, it’s just an intermediate variable in the computation. The things that exist (corresponding to the Φ variable in the formalism) and the things that are experienced (corresponding to some function of the 2Γ variable in the formalism) only have one branch.
So in a “weird experiment”, the infrabayesian starts by believing only one branch exists, and then at some point starts believing in multiple branches?
Multiple branches can only exist transiently during the weird experiment (i.e. neither before nor after). Naturally, if the agent knows in advance the experiment is going to happen, then it anticipates those branches to appear.