Re: copying related probability question

Wei Dai (weidai@eskimo.com)
Tue, 23 Sep 1997 12:19:52 -0700 (PDT)


On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Nicholas Bostrom wrote:

> This thread is closely related to the Carter-Leslie Doomsday
> argumen. I have a paper about this:
>
> http://www.hedweb.com/nickb/140797/doomsday.html
>
> (If anybody has any idea on how we might solve the so-called "problem
> of the reference class", I would be all ears.)

I agree with Nicholas that these two problems are closely related. The
nice thing about the copying problem is that the reference class is very
clear. It is the class of your (potential) clones. It's interesting that
if answer set B is correct, then something like the self-indication axiom
does apply in the copying problem.

> I have not had time to think trough the postings that have been made
> here yet, and tomorrow I'm going to a conference in Germany (to give
> a presentation that will hopefully help increasing awareness of
> transhumanism in the academic philosophical community), but when I
> come back, I will re-read the messeges and see if I can draw some
> conclusions.

I will be very interested to hear your thoughts.