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Indeed, the Free Will Theorem of quantum mechanics makes short work of Bostrom's hope that it would be possible to just rewind the Universe and get the desired
by lidHanteyk 6y ago
Indeed, the Free Will Theorem of quantum mechanics makes short work of Bostrom's hope that it would be possible to just rewind the Universe and get the desired outcome, as if creating a tool-assisted speedrun.
Edit: Imagine that you are simulating a qubit. You want the qubit to behave a certain way, but it refuses to do what you want. You try rewinding it over and over with your magic time-rewinder, but it still refuses to give you the measurement that you expect. That's the Free Will Theorem.
Now imagine that you're simulating a human. You want the human to behave a certain way...
- naasking 6y agoThe Free Will Theorem has nothing to do with anything. It doesn't even say that people or particles have free will, it says only that experimenters and particles have the same amount of freedom. That could still be zero, because deterministic interpretations of QM exist.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mannykannot 6y agoIf you are simulating a qbit, why would you necessarily want it to go a certain way, let alone need it to do so? Ditto for a simulated human. If we are in a simulation, we would have no reason to assume that the physics of the universe in which the simulation runs are as they appear to us. If, however, we chose to assume that is so, it would be consistent to also expect our simulated world to have free will up to the point that the entity running the simulation has.