I have the utmost faith in Nature to ensure that eventually, everything keeps getting better on average
The laws of physics don’t care. What process do you think explains the fact that you have this belief? If the truth of a belief isn’t what causes you to have it, having that belief is not evidence for its truth.
I’m afraid it was no mistake that I used the word “faith”!
This belief does not appear to conflict with the truth (or at least that’s a separate debate) but it is also difficult to find truthful support for it. Sure, I can wave my hands about complexity and entropy and how information can’t be destroyed but only created, but I’ll totally admit that this does not logically translate into “life will be good in the future.”
The best argument I can give goes as follows. For the sake of discussion, at least, let’s assume MWI. Then there is some population of alternate futures. Now let’s assume that the only stable equilibria are entirely valueless state ensembles such as the heat death of the universe. With me so far? OK, now here’s the first big leap: let’s say that our quantification of value, from state ensembles to the nonnegative reals, can be approximated by a continuous function. Therefore, by application of Conley’s theorem, the value trajectories of alternate futures fall into one of two categories: those which asymptotically approach 0, and those which asymptotically approach infinity. The second big leap involves disregarding those alternate futures which approach zero. Not only will you and I die in those futures, but we won’t even be remembered; none of our actions or words will be observed beyond a finite time horizon along those trajectories. So I conclude that I should behave as if the only trajectories are those which asymptotically approach infinity.
It seems to me like you assume that you have no agency in pushing the value trajectories of alternate futures towards infinity rather than zero, and I don’t see why.
The laws of physics don’t care. What process do you think explains the fact that you have this belief? If the truth of a belief isn’t what causes you to have it, having that belief is not evidence for its truth.
I’m afraid it was no mistake that I used the word “faith”!
This belief does not appear to conflict with the truth (or at least that’s a separate debate) but it is also difficult to find truthful support for it. Sure, I can wave my hands about complexity and entropy and how information can’t be destroyed but only created, but I’ll totally admit that this does not logically translate into “life will be good in the future.”
The best argument I can give goes as follows. For the sake of discussion, at least, let’s assume MWI. Then there is some population of alternate futures. Now let’s assume that the only stable equilibria are entirely valueless state ensembles such as the heat death of the universe. With me so far? OK, now here’s the first big leap: let’s say that our quantification of value, from state ensembles to the nonnegative reals, can be approximated by a continuous function. Therefore, by application of Conley’s theorem, the value trajectories of alternate futures fall into one of two categories: those which asymptotically approach 0, and those which asymptotically approach infinity. The second big leap involves disregarding those alternate futures which approach zero. Not only will you and I die in those futures, but we won’t even be remembered; none of our actions or words will be observed beyond a finite time horizon along those trajectories. So I conclude that I should behave as if the only trajectories are those which asymptotically approach infinity.
It seems to me like you assume that you have no agency in pushing the value trajectories of alternate futures towards infinity rather than zero, and I don’t see why.
Is this a variant of quantum suicide, with “suicide” part replaced by “dead and forgotten in long run, whatever the cause”?