Re: virus: Technology (was manifest science)

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Sat, 5 Jun 1999 19:04:57 -0400

Hi,

Dylan Durst <ddurst@levien.com> writes:

<<
You['re] still only able to make one choice. In retrospect, the only 'choice' you could have made is the one you did, since that is all you did 'choose'. Any other choice would have required a different brain with different memories, reactions and calculations. It would not have to be much different, but it would not be the same.

Ramble/note to self:
Does the idea of 'choice' stem/relate to the idea of 'linear time'? >>

Yes! I'll take this opportunity to recommend the book I just read to all Virians:

The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch.

It is an attempt to see how deep an explaination of our universe our four most fundamental theories in science can give, if we take those theories seriously. His "four main strands" of explaination are 

(1) Quantum theory
(2) The theory of evolution
(3) Epistemology (specifically Popper's evolutationary theories based
on conjecture and refutation of explainations) (4) The theory of computation.

It is, above all, a book about the multi-verse hypothesis, and it's implications in the other related fields.

So yes -- the idea of choice does not relate to linear time. In a Newtonian universe, choice is impossible, becuase the future is *determined* by the past. So choice has a negative relationship to linear time: it reveals that linear time is an incorrect explaination of reality.

In a quantum multi-verse, choice is the essence of *your* universe. (since *everything* happens, what we experience is entirely determined by our choices -- they determine which states of the multi-verse your
"universe" or "space-time" will include)

I'll transcribe his little table on this subject:

sentence:
"After careful thought I chose to do X"

meaning in the multi-verse:
"After careful thought, some copies of me, including the one speaking,
chose to do X"

sentence:
"I could have chosen otherwise"
meaning in the multi-verse:
"Other copies of me chose otherwise"

sentence:
"It was the right decision"

meaning in the multi-verse:
"Representations of the moral or aesthetic values that are reflected
in my choice of option X are repeated much more widely in the multiverse than representations of rival values."

sentence:
"I am good at making choices"

meaning in the multi-verse:
"The copies of me who chose X, and who chose rightly in other such
situations, greatly out number those who did not"

ERiC