3 ms·

Near the start a discussion of if you should go on holiday, or save a life. Except there will be an infinite number of slightly different universes where, by go

Near the start a discussion of if you should go on holiday, or save a life. Except there will be an infinite number of slightly different universes where, by going on holiday, you are given the opportunity to save a life. There will also be an infinite number of universes where your donation ends up causing the end of the world. Once you consider every possible world and every possible outcome, happening infinitely many times, I would draw a different conclusion -- unless you have the power to effect the entire "infinite-verse", then anything you do becomes unimportant, as infinite+finite=infinite, so your contributions are lost in the wash.

nonameiguess 5y ago
This is where measure theory comes in. In spite of the fact that the interval [0, 1] is uncountably infinite, as is every possible subinterval, we can still coherently talk about some event spaces being more probable than others.
- andrewla 5y ago
  Agreed -- I usually phrase this as "there are an infinite number of odd numbers but none of them are even".
janto 5y ago
This also applies to a single universe where an action might have many unintended consequences, possibly snowballing into exactly the opposite from what you would have wanted. In this sense, each of your decisions are important and you are responsible for everything. So in such a dynamical system, how do you then act? The philosophically Western answer to this is in part through Logos. You treat the spoken and written word as divine, through truthful and authentic expression of the individual, as clearly as possible. The consequences of how this unfolds is outside your immediate control, as it should be. Love has an important role here, but Love without Truth seems to be the prevailing attitude online, which is declared as a personal virtue and experienced as righteous indignation. This is to me what others perceive as the fall of the West: the prioritization of Love over Truth.

nonameiguess 5y ago

This is where measure theory comes in. In spite of the fact that the interval [0, 1] is uncountably infinite, as is every possible subinterval, we can still coherently talk about some event spaces being more probable than others.

andrewla 5y ago
Agreed -- I usually phrase this as "there are an infinite number of odd numbers but none of them are even".

janto 5y ago

This also applies to a single universe where an action might have many unintended consequences, possibly snowballing into exactly the opposite from what you would have wanted. In this sense, each of your decisions are important and you are responsible for everything. So in such a dynamical system, how do you then act? The philosophically Western answer to this is in part through Logos. You treat the spoken and written word as divine, through truthful and authentic expression of the individual, as clearly as possible. The consequences of how this unfolds is outside your immediate control, as it should be. Love has an important role here, but Love without Truth seems to be the prevailing attitude online, which is declared as a personal virtue and experienced as righteous indignation. This is to me what others perceive as the fall of the West: the prioritization of Love over Truth.