mitchell porter: There is a nonzero probability of death per unit time, and so the probability of literal immortality is infinitesimal, being a product of infinitely many quantities less than 1.
The problem is that probability is also relative: for example, if you inevitably die in 99% of MWI worlds every second, and live on normally in the rest of them, you still make the same decisions, you grow used to remaining alive; you can’t do anything about those 99%, so you don’t include that fact in your decision-making. More generally, a universe that disintegrates in 99% of the cases, will evolve the same kind of intelligent decision-makers as the universe that doesn’t disintegrate.
Quantum immortality is still mysterious to me, although spectrum of near-dead states that are more likely then alive-and-fine states makes it a sour prospect in any case.
mitchell porter: There is a nonzero probability of death per unit time, and so the probability of literal immortality is infinitesimal, being a product of infinitely many quantities less than 1.
The problem is that probability is also relative: for example, if you inevitably die in 99% of MWI worlds every second, and live on normally in the rest of them, you still make the same decisions, you grow used to remaining alive; you can’t do anything about those 99%, so you don’t include that fact in your decision-making. More generally, a universe that disintegrates in 99% of the cases, will evolve the same kind of intelligent decision-makers as the universe that doesn’t disintegrate.
Quantum immortality is still mysterious to me, although spectrum of near-dead states that are more likely then alive-and-fine states makes it a sour prospect in any case.