I was using ‘you’ and ‘us’ in the colloquial sense of the subjective experiences of a specific, arbitrary continuity chosen at random from of the set of Everette branches in the hypothetical branch of the world tree that this counterfactual occurs in.
Now, I CAN start listing my precise definitions for every potentially ambiguous term I use, or we could simply agree not to pick improbable and inconsistent interpretations of the other’s words. Frankly, I’d much prefer the latter, as I cannot abide pedants.
EDIT: Or you could downvote all my posts. That’s cool too.
Since the distinction is of decision theoretical relevance and the source of much confusion I choose to clarify incorrect usages of ‘unpredictable’ in this particular environment. By phrasing it as ‘more precisely’ I leave plenty of scope for the original speaker to be assumed to be just speaking loosely.
Unfortunately you chose to fortify and defend an incorrect position instead of allowing the additional detail. Now you have given a very nice definition of ‘you’ but even with that definition both of your claims are just as incorrect as when they started. Fixing ‘you’ misses the point.
You are probably too entrenched in your position to work with but for anyone else who wants to talk about ‘unpredictable’ quantum coins, qualifiers like (“for most intents and purposes”, “effectively”) are awesome!
By reading the quantum coin flip, you definitely entangle yourself with it, and there’s no way you’re going to stay coherent.
As a hard-core Everettian, I find the original usage and the followup totally unobjectionable in principle. Your clarification was good except for the part where it said Ati’s statement was wrong. There exists a reading of the terms which leaves those wrong, yes. So don’t use that one.
EDIT: Or you could downvote all my posts. That’s cool too.
It should be noted that ‘all my posts’ does not refer to karma-assassaination here. Rather, that three comments here were downvoted. This is correct (and in accord with my downvoting policy).
And I perceived you as being needlessly pedantic and choosing implausible interpretations of my words so that you could correct me. You’ll note that your comment karma stands. I am, in fact, aware of quantum mechanics, and you are, of course, entirely correct. Coins behave in precisely deterministic ways, even if they rely on, say, radioactive decay. The causality just occurs in many Everette branches. That said, there is no way that before ‘you’ ‘flip the coin’ you can make a prediction about its subjective future state, and have more than half of your future selves be right. If that’s not ‘unpredictable’ by the word’s colloquial definition, then I’m not sure the word has any meaning.
You will notice that when I said that the coin is unpredictable, I did not claim, or even imply that the world was undeterministic, or that quantum mechanics was wrong. If I had said such a thing, you would have right to correct me. As it is, you took the opportunity to jump on my phrasing to correct me of a misconception that I did not, in fact, possess. That is being pedantic, it is pointless, and above all it is annoying. I apologize for rudeness, but trying to catch up others on their phrasing is a shocking waste of intellect and time.
EDIT: Again, I can totally discard every word that’s entrenched in good, old-fashioned single-universe connotations, and spell out all the fascinating multiverse implications of everything I say, if that will make you happy—but it will make my posts about five times longer, and it will make it a good deal more difficult to figure out what the hell I’m saying, which rather defeats the purpose of using language.
I’ll note that I reject your ‘implausible’ claim, object to all insinuations regarding motive, stand by my previous statements and will maintain my policy of making mild clarifications when the subject happens to come up.
As you like. Though I do hope you apply your strident policy of technical correctness in your home life, for consistency’s sake.
For example: someone (clearly wrong) like I would merely say, in our archaic and hoplessly monocosmological phrasing ‘I am going to lunch.’ This is clearly nonsense. You will, over the set of multiverse branches, do a great many things, many of them having nothing to do with food, or survival. The concept of ‘I’ and ‘lunch’ are not even particularly well defined.
In contrast, someone held to your standard of correctness would have to say ‘The computation function implemented in the cluster of mass from which these encoded pressure waves are emanating will execute a series of action for which they predict that in the majority of future Everette branches of this fork of the world tree, the aforementioned cluster of mass will accumulate new amplitude and potential energy through the process of digestion within the next hour and fifteen minutes.’
Clearly this is more efficient and less confusing to the reader.
I consider the selection of analogies made in the parent to constitute a misrepresentation (and fundamental misunderstanding) of the preceding conversation.
I was using ‘you’ and ‘us’ in the colloquial sense of the subjective experiences of a specific, arbitrary continuity chosen at random from of the set of Everette branches in the hypothetical branch of the world tree that this counterfactual occurs in.
Now, I CAN start listing my precise definitions for every potentially ambiguous term I use, or we could simply agree not to pick improbable and inconsistent interpretations of the other’s words. Frankly, I’d much prefer the latter, as I cannot abide pedants.
EDIT: Or you could downvote all my posts. That’s cool too.
Since the distinction is of decision theoretical relevance and the source of much confusion I choose to clarify incorrect usages of ‘unpredictable’ in this particular environment. By phrasing it as ‘more precisely’ I leave plenty of scope for the original speaker to be assumed to be just speaking loosely.
Unfortunately you chose to fortify and defend an incorrect position instead of allowing the additional detail. Now you have given a very nice definition of ‘you’ but even with that definition both of your claims are just as incorrect as when they started. Fixing ‘you’ misses the point.
You are probably too entrenched in your position to work with but for anyone else who wants to talk about ‘unpredictable’ quantum coins, qualifiers like (“for most intents and purposes”, “effectively”) are awesome!
By reading the quantum coin flip, you definitely entangle yourself with it, and there’s no way you’re going to stay coherent.
As a hard-core Everettian, I find the original usage and the followup totally unobjectionable in principle. Your clarification was good except for the part where it said Ati’s statement was wrong. There exists a reading of the terms which leaves those wrong, yes. So don’t use that one.
It should be noted that ‘all my posts’ does not refer to karma-assassaination here. Rather, that three comments here were downvoted. This is correct (and in accord with my downvoting policy).
And I perceived you as being needlessly pedantic and choosing implausible interpretations of my words so that you could correct me. You’ll note that your comment karma stands. I am, in fact, aware of quantum mechanics, and you are, of course, entirely correct. Coins behave in precisely deterministic ways, even if they rely on, say, radioactive decay. The causality just occurs in many Everette branches. That said, there is no way that before ‘you’ ‘flip the coin’ you can make a prediction about its subjective future state, and have more than half of your future selves be right. If that’s not ‘unpredictable’ by the word’s colloquial definition, then I’m not sure the word has any meaning.
You will notice that when I said that the coin is unpredictable, I did not claim, or even imply that the world was undeterministic, or that quantum mechanics was wrong. If I had said such a thing, you would have right to correct me. As it is, you took the opportunity to jump on my phrasing to correct me of a misconception that I did not, in fact, possess. That is being pedantic, it is pointless, and above all it is annoying. I apologize for rudeness, but trying to catch up others on their phrasing is a shocking waste of intellect and time.
EDIT: Again, I can totally discard every word that’s entrenched in good, old-fashioned single-universe connotations, and spell out all the fascinating multiverse implications of everything I say, if that will make you happy—but it will make my posts about five times longer, and it will make it a good deal more difficult to figure out what the hell I’m saying, which rather defeats the purpose of using language.
I’ll note that I reject your ‘implausible’ claim, object to all insinuations regarding motive, stand by my previous statements and will maintain my policy of making mild clarifications when the subject happens to come up.
There seems to be little else to be said here.
As you like. Though I do hope you apply your strident policy of technical correctness in your home life, for consistency’s sake.
For example: someone (clearly wrong) like I would merely say, in our archaic and hoplessly monocosmological phrasing ‘I am going to lunch.’ This is clearly nonsense. You will, over the set of multiverse branches, do a great many things, many of them having nothing to do with food, or survival. The concept of ‘I’ and ‘lunch’ are not even particularly well defined.
In contrast, someone held to your standard of correctness would have to say ‘The computation function implemented in the cluster of mass from which these encoded pressure waves are emanating will execute a series of action for which they predict that in the majority of future Everette branches of this fork of the world tree, the aforementioned cluster of mass will accumulate new amplitude and potential energy through the process of digestion within the next hour and fifteen minutes.’
Clearly this is more efficient and less confusing to the reader.
I consider the selection of analogies made in the parent to constitute a misrepresentation (and fundamental misunderstanding) of the preceding conversation.