8 ms·
Notice that for this to work reliably (assuming the Many World Interpretation is correct), you need a suicide method with a failure rate orders of magnitude bel
by TelmoMenezes 11y ago
Notice that for this to work reliably (assuming the Many World Interpretation is correct), you need a suicide method with a failure rate orders of magnitude below the probability of winning the bet. Otherwise you may end up in a universe where the suicide method failed instead of one where you win the bet. Failures that cause you a severe disability instead of killing you are particularly worrying.
The lower the probability of winning a bet (and so, the higher the potential gain), the more reliable you need your suicide system to be. For relevant gains, this becomes a non-trivial engineering problem. (e.g. suppose you need a gun that only jams for one in every billion shots, or a computer that can run for billions of seconds without crashing or malfunctioning).
- stared 11y agoThis reliability is not that hard: take a photon and split it though a beamsplitter. One path leads to a detector with "you won" and the other - a detector igniting an explosive. So why there may be problems (like: photon was not detected due to finite sensitivity) in this setting the wounded-but-not-dead outcome is negligible. In general, it is easy to amplify quantum effect with such avalanche reactions. When it comes to MWI - it is the hard part. I am not sure if I believe it; or what is it's interpretations (maybe it's still unethical to having mourning families and friends in 1-\epsilon worlds). Also: even if I gamble many times, and I find myself alive - does it mean is it correct? And even if - there is no way of announcing it. And also, on a funnier note - Everettian dating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY
- Chris2048 11y agomalfunctioning detector?
- ikeboy 11y agoI don't understand your design. How does the fact as to whether you won cause the photon to activate the explosive?
- stared 11y agoThere are two different detectors and a single photon. It can be detected only in one place at a time.
- ikeboy 11y agoThe usual design of quantum suicide involves the following: 1. Something in the world depends on a choice you make. If you choose correctly, you win. Ideally, there are a large number of choices, e.g. lottery, stock, bitcoin private keys, whatever. 2. You use quantum randomness to make the choice 3. The machine you constructed checks whether you won 4. If you did not win, it kills you So you need to have a machine that reliably checks for a win, and kills you if it doesn't find one. How does having two detectors for the proton help?
- stared 11y agoIn any case, I presented a simple, concrete implementation. Checking is built-in - if the photon goes path with bomb, then I am dead (due to this bomb). If goes the path where is a detector - then I won. No need to create a "checking machine" distinct from the one generating quantum states.
- ikeboy 11y agoHow do you win? Nothing in your comment explains that. Give a detailed model, as I did.
- stared 11y agoSetting is here: http://imgur.com/qwpukly http://imgur.com/qwpukly You win if the photon is measured by the win-detector, as depicted here: http://imgur.com/STjajMp http://imgur.com/STjajMp (it can light a green led, make sound or, I don't know, launch confetti). People pay money, as it was a bet.
- 11y ago