From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 01:18:04 MST
Mike writes
> Damien Broderick wrote:
> > Hal wrote:
> >
> > > re-runs are particularly prone to philosophical
> > > slippery-slope arguments where we blur the lines
> > > between an "actual" re-run and what amounts to a
> > > picture of one. I won't recap the arguments here,
> > > they have been discussed ad infinitum in the archives.
> >
> > Ah, but are the archived arguments an "actual" re-run
> > or what amounts to a picture of one?
>
> By definition, an archive is a picture of an argument, not an actual
> argument in action. Of course, this post is an archive of my argument,
> and not the actual argument itself (good thing you can't hear me
> ranting at the CRT!).
That is exactly correct Mike. It's even true if Damien
were to write a fifteen-volume novel describing you
ranting behind your terminal in chapters 23-1506 (Vol II-
Vol XIV).
> I suppose any email exchange is merely an
> exchange/distribution of archived arguments.... If so, did we ever
> really have a discussion, or do we just remember that we did?
Oh, we really did, of that I can absolutely assure you.
Because even if in the set of Earths that develop a lot
of emulations of us thrashing this out, and even if
those simulations were pure fiction (nothing had ever
happened in the Hubble volume X where the emulation is
taking place), there are still infinitely many worlds
where it all *did* happen.
> If you can't rant at your opponent in person, does a debate ever really
> take place, or is it merely a plenum of possible quantum world paths?
I think that David Deutsch would say that they're the same thing.
> In a MWI metaverse, do all possible participants each argue every
> possible argument to every possible point of contention,
Of course! It's only a matter of density over the worlds.
Very rare arguments (e.g., the ones you lose, like this one)
have a very low density ;-)
> or does it merely seem so from the amount of list traffic
> (ah, there is where the signal to noise ratio comes from!)...?
Aw, you've just been funnin' with me. I got to lighten up here.
Lee
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