Why does my existence feel smooth, unlike the topology of a branch point in a graph?
This is an interesting question, and after thinking it over, I think our brains actively smooth out the past and erase the other branches. For example, consider the throw of a die. Before you throw it, you see the future as branched, each branch being thinner/less real than the worldline that you’re on. But after you see the outcome, that branched view of the world disappears, as if all the other branches were pruned, and the branch with the outcome that you observed instantly grows to be as thick as the main trunk.
We know intellectually that in MWI the branch we are on is splitting and getting thinner continuously, but it doesn’t feel that way. What if it did feel that way? Can we still motivate ourselves to think and act when we viscerally know that our decisions are affecting a smaller and smaller part of the universe? I guess evolution didn’t want to solve that problem, so it created for us the illusion that our branch isn’t getting thinner instead.
No, I’m not claiming any of those things. By “illusion” I meant a view of the universe that doesn’t correspond to reality, not a patch to override a default.
This is an interesting question, and after thinking it over, I think our brains actively smooth out the past and erase the other branches. For example, consider the throw of a die. Before you throw it, you see the future as branched, each branch being thinner/less real than the worldline that you’re on. But after you see the outcome, that branched view of the world disappears, as if all the other branches were pruned, and the branch with the outcome that you observed instantly grows to be as thick as the main trunk.
We know intellectually that in MWI the branch we are on is splitting and getting thinner continuously, but it doesn’t feel that way. What if it did feel that way? Can we still motivate ourselves to think and act when we viscerally know that our decisions are affecting a smaller and smaller part of the universe? I guess evolution didn’t want to solve that problem, so it created for us the illusion that our branch isn’t getting thinner instead.
Humans would have innate knowledge of many worlds if a specific illusion hadn’t evolved to counter it?
By default, evolved organisms have innate knowledge of many worlds?
There are features in biological evolution that are conditional on many worlds being true?
I hope I misunderstood you...
No, I’m not claiming any of those things. By “illusion” I meant a view of the universe that doesn’t correspond to reality, not a patch to override a default.
Could be the same reason my tabletop feels smooth, even though it’s made of atoms.
Given TDT/UDT our decisions aren’t so confined.