No, the distinction between MWI and Copenhagen would have actual physical consequences. For instance, if you die in the Copenhagen interpretation, you die in real life. If you die in MWI, there is still a copy of you elsewhere that didn’t die. MWI allows for quantum immortality.
The distinction between presentism and eternalism, as far as I can tell, does not imply any difference in the way the world works.
No, the distinction between MWI and Copenhagen would have actual physical consequences. For instance, if you die in the Copenhagen interpretation, you die in real life. If you die in MWI, there is still a copy of you elsewhere that didn’t die. MWI allows for quantum immortality.
Analogously, under the A-theory, dying-you does not exist anywhere in spacetime. The only “you” that exists is the present living you.
Under the B-theory, dying-you does exist right now (assuming that you’ll eventually die). It just doesn’t exist (I hope) at this point in spacetime, where “this point” is the point at which you are reading this sentence. When you die in the A-theory, there is not a copy of you elsewhen that isn’t dying. The B-theory, in contrast, allows for a kind of Spinoza-style timeless immortality. It will always be the case that you are living at this moment.
(As usual in this thread, I’m treating “A-theory” and “presentism” as being broadly synonymous.)
If you think that other points of spacetime exist, then you’re essentially a B-theorist. If you want to be an A-theorist nonetheless, you’ll have to add some kind of additional structure to your world model, just as single-world QM needs to add a “world eater” to many-worlds QM.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by ‘Spinoza-style’, but I get the gist of it and find this analogy interesting. Could you explain what you mean by Spinoza-style? My knowledge of ancient philosophers is a little rusty.
That post discusses one interpretation of Spinoza’s notion of immortality. The basic idea is that the entire universe exists in a timeless sense “from the standpoint of eternity”, and the entire universe is the way it is necessarily. Hence, every part of the universe, including ourselves, exists eternally in the universe. Because the universe is necessarily the way it is, no part of it can ever not exist.
No, the distinction between MWI and Copenhagen would have actual physical consequences. For instance, if you die in the Copenhagen interpretation, you die in real life. If you die in MWI, there is still a copy of you elsewhere that didn’t die. MWI allows for quantum immortality.
The distinction between presentism and eternalism, as far as I can tell, does not imply any difference in the way the world works.
Analogously, under the A-theory, dying-you does not exist anywhere in spacetime. The only “you” that exists is the present living you.
Under the B-theory, dying-you does exist right now (assuming that you’ll eventually die). It just doesn’t exist (I hope) at this point in spacetime, where “this point” is the point at which you are reading this sentence. When you die in the A-theory, there is not a copy of you elsewhen that isn’t dying. The B-theory, in contrast, allows for a kind of Spinoza-style timeless immortality. It will always be the case that you are living at this moment.
(As usual in this thread, I’m treating “A-theory” and “presentism” as being broadly synonymous.)
If you think that other points of spacetime exist, then you’re essentially a B-theorist. If you want to be an A-theorist nonetheless, you’ll have to add some kind of additional structure to your world model, just as single-world QM needs to add a “world eater” to many-worlds QM.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by ‘Spinoza-style’, but I get the gist of it and find this analogy interesting. Could you explain what you mean by Spinoza-style? My knowledge of ancient philosophers is a little rusty.
Sorry just to throw a link at you, but here is a link :)
http://kvond.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/spinoza-on-the-immortality-of-the-soul/
That post discusses one interpretation of Spinoza’s notion of immortality. The basic idea is that the entire universe exists in a timeless sense “from the standpoint of eternity”, and the entire universe is the way it is necessarily. Hence, every part of the universe, including ourselves, exists eternally in the universe. Because the universe is necessarily the way it is, no part of it can ever not exist.