If an American signs up for cryonics and pays their ~$300/year, what are their odds of being revived?
This may just be my own intuition running away on me, but it seems like there are two different answers to that question.
In an absolute sense (as in, percentage of everett branches where you are revived from cryonics), the chances are probably pretty slim.
However, in a subjective sense. (“You” experience waking up from cryonics), the chances seem near certain. It’s not like you’d be aware of any of the universes where you weren’t revived, after all.
Not really. I think there is a difference betwween your consciousness existing in a branch where the casual chains leading to its destruction merely haven’t reached your senses yet, and your brain existing in an unchanging state for a long period of time that would stretch the possible restoration of “you” over all branchings forward from the time of successful preservation.
Your consciousness not “running” at all seems like a very different thing from it merely not knowing which branch(s) it is “running” in.
This may just be my own intuition running away on me, but it seems like there are two different answers to that question.
In an absolute sense (as in, percentage of everett branches where you are revived from cryonics), the chances are probably pretty slim.
However, in a subjective sense. (“You” experience waking up from cryonics), the chances seem near certain. It’s not like you’d be aware of any of the universes where you weren’t revived, after all.
Doesn’t this same argument say that the chances are certain that some branch of you keeps happening not to die anyway?
Not really. I think there is a difference betwween your consciousness existing in a branch where the casual chains leading to its destruction merely haven’t reached your senses yet, and your brain existing in an unchanging state for a long period of time that would stretch the possible restoration of “you” over all branchings forward from the time of successful preservation.
Your consciousness not “running” at all seems like a very different thing from it merely not knowing which branch(s) it is “running” in.