Which would be relevant if we were considering copies. We aren’t. It’s us. Just us.
We are considering giving ourselves a significant chance of being dead. If Sfor’s (rather well presented) explanations and accompanying skull imagery are not sufficient to demonstrate that this is a bad thing, it may help to substitute death for, perhaps, a 9⁄10 quantum determined chance of being given bad arthritis in our right knee. We can expect a 90% of experiencing mild chronic pain after the quantum dice are rolled and a 10% chance of experiencing the more desirable outcome. Then, we can decide whether we prefer being put to death to a sore knee.
The pain is real pain. The death is real death. They don’t stop being bad things just because quantum mechanics is confusing.
If many-worlds quantum uncertainty leads you to make different decisions than you would when exposed to other kinds of uncertainty then it is probably far safer to assume quantum collapse. Sure, it may make you look silly and your decision making would be somewhat complicated by the extra complexity in your model. But at least you’ll refrain from doing anything stupid.
Quantum-goo maximization. Hmmm…
I remember reading some very convincing arguments of Eliezer why filling the multiverse with our copies is a wrong objective.
Which would be relevant if we were considering copies. We aren’t. It’s us. Just us.
We are considering giving ourselves a significant chance of being dead. If Sfor’s (rather well presented) explanations and accompanying skull imagery are not sufficient to demonstrate that this is a bad thing, it may help to substitute death for, perhaps, a 9⁄10 quantum determined chance of being given bad arthritis in our right knee. We can expect a 90% of experiencing mild chronic pain after the quantum dice are rolled and a 10% chance of experiencing the more desirable outcome. Then, we can decide whether we prefer being put to death to a sore knee.
The pain is real pain. The death is real death. They don’t stop being bad things just because quantum mechanics is confusing.
If many-worlds quantum uncertainty leads you to make different decisions than you would when exposed to other kinds of uncertainty then it is probably far safer to assume quantum collapse. Sure, it may make you look silly and your decision making would be somewhat complicated by the extra complexity in your model. But at least you’ll refrain from doing anything stupid.