“constantly splitting into billions of other people, as is the straightforward and unavoidable prediction of quantum mechanics”
Quantum mechanics does not even “straightforwardly and unavoidably” predict the splitting of an electron. It predicts the splitting of the electron’s wavefunction, but what that means is the whole question. Under some interpretations, the wavefunction will be derived from ordinary probability after all, and reifying it—supposing it to be an independent element of reality—is Mind Projection Fallacy. Under other interpretations, the wavefunction corresponds to an ensemble of independent histories, and there is no splitting. Only under what I called Parmenidean Many Worlds does the splitting of wave packets correspond to an actual multiplication of entities—and then one has to suppose that the entities in question only exist vaguely.
Of course, some of what you say applies to other situations where one has a very large number of near-duplicates, as in a spatially infinite universe.
“constantly splitting into billions of other people, as is the straightforward and unavoidable prediction of quantum mechanics”
Quantum mechanics does not even “straightforwardly and unavoidably” predict the splitting of an electron. It predicts the splitting of the electron’s wavefunction, but what that means is the whole question. Under some interpretations, the wavefunction will be derived from ordinary probability after all, and reifying it—supposing it to be an independent element of reality—is Mind Projection Fallacy. Under other interpretations, the wavefunction corresponds to an ensemble of independent histories, and there is no splitting. Only under what I called Parmenidean Many Worlds does the splitting of wave packets correspond to an actual multiplication of entities—and then one has to suppose that the entities in question only exist vaguely.
Of course, some of what you say applies to other situations where one has a very large number of near-duplicates, as in a spatially infinite universe.