I’m interested in how people here feel about the teletransportation paradox with multiple copies. I have several scenarios:
Scenario 1: You are placed in a machine on earth that puts you to sleep and then instantaneously disintegrate your body, in the process recording its exact atomic configuration.
This information is then beamed to another machine on planet A, and in that machine new matter is used to construct a body with the same configuration as yours.
At the same time, the same information is sent to a machine on planet B, and a second body is also constructed with the same configuration as yours, at the exact same time as the one on planet A.
At this point, both copies of your atomic configuration wake up and walk out into their respective planets.
Question 1: What is the probability that after going to sleep on earth, you wake up on planet A?
Now we modify the scenario:
Scenario 2: 1 millisecond after the initial split, and before either copy wakes up, the machine on planet B is activated again, the copy on planet B is instantaneously disintegrated, and that atomic configuration is transmitted to two more machines on planet C and planet D, which both construct identical copies of the original copy on planet B.
At this point, the copies on planet A, C, and D are all woken up and walk out into their respective planets.
Question 2: What is the probability that, in this new scenario, after going to sleep on earth, you wake up on planet A?
Scenario 3&4: The teletransporters are capable of copying not just you, but also your clothing and items you are holding, such as the cash and other contents your wallet. On the way to the first machine, someone offers to sell you a winning lottery ticket that pays out a hundred dollars, but only if cashed in on Planet A. They only take cash, and if you pay the cash, it obviously will not be copied in the teletransportation process. Assume that you are purely selfish about your own experiences.
Question 3: In scenario 1, how much cash would you pay for the 100 buck planet A lottery ticket?
Question 4: In scenario 2, how much cash would you pay for the 100 buck planet A lottery ticket?
I have my own thoughts and confusions, but I’d be interested in what other people think first. Note that answers like “not enough information” or “ill formed question” are valid as well.
[Question] Thoughts on teletransportation with copies?
I’m interested in how people here feel about the teletransportation paradox with multiple copies. I have several scenarios:
Scenario 1: You are placed in a machine on earth that puts you to sleep and then instantaneously disintegrate your body, in the process recording its exact atomic configuration.
This information is then beamed to another machine on planet A, and in that machine new matter is used to construct a body with the same configuration as yours.
At the same time, the same information is sent to a machine on planet B, and a second body is also constructed with the same configuration as yours, at the exact same time as the one on planet A.
At this point, both copies of your atomic configuration wake up and walk out into their respective planets.
Question 1: What is the probability that after going to sleep on earth, you wake up on planet A?
Now we modify the scenario:
Scenario 2: 1 millisecond after the initial split, and before either copy wakes up, the machine on planet B is activated again, the copy on planet B is instantaneously disintegrated, and that atomic configuration is transmitted to two more machines on planet C and planet D, which both construct identical copies of the original copy on planet B.
At this point, the copies on planet A, C, and D are all woken up and walk out into their respective planets.
Question 2: What is the probability that, in this new scenario, after going to sleep on earth, you wake up on planet A?
Scenario 3&4: The teletransporters are capable of copying not just you, but also your clothing and items you are holding, such as the cash and other contents your wallet. On the way to the first machine, someone offers to sell you a winning lottery ticket that pays out a hundred dollars, but only if cashed in on Planet A. They only take cash, and if you pay the cash, it obviously will not be copied in the teletransportation process. Assume that you are purely selfish about your own experiences.
Question 3: In scenario 1, how much cash would you pay for the 100 buck planet A lottery ticket?
Question 4: In scenario 2, how much cash would you pay for the 100 buck planet A lottery ticket?
I have my own thoughts and confusions, but I’d be interested in what other people think first. Note that answers like “not enough information” or “ill formed question” are valid as well.