From DC comics, via quantum mechanics, to trenchant advice about how to handle our increasingly fraught world. Not bad going for one essay.
Matt Hindman
1 year ago
I have noticed this is common habit with people suffering from Never My Fault Syndrome.
Laura Creighton
1 year ago
I haven’t seen the movie. I have, however, read Larry Niven’s *All the Myriad Ways* from the collection of short stories by the same name. And this short story outlines what I think is the great problem with the every-decision-splits-both-ways version of the multiverse, which is ‘Whither Agency’?
Ever struggle with a very difficult decision? Why bother? You made it both ways. Tempted to do something evil? Somebody is giving into temptation right now, why not you? Feeling suicidal? Why not? Some fraction of you are going to die and others will survive. What does it matter? Does it matter if the (six-sided) dice are loaded? All six outcomes are going to show up, so what’s the point?
Last edited 1 year ago by Laura Creighton
Kieran Saxon
1 year ago
The covid counter-factual is extremely important as there was a divergence from widely recognised standards such as focusing on those with the highest risk and restrictions on human rights as an absolute last resort.
It is matter for justice, and as the personification of justice with weighing scales demonstrates – justice is about balance. So yes, learn the lessons to ensure it never happens again, but there needs to be visible punishment as part of the deterrent.
There are activists who pushed for the egregious measures like school closures which will have long term ramifications. There needs to be an appropriate level of justice, and part of that is an appropriate level of punishment.
Why should someone be punished for their best guess being wrong, or having had unpleasant side-effects? At least someone who feels that they suffered from having their school closed is alive to feel this way. In a counter-factual pandemic they might not be here to feel anything.
Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
1 year ago
Good essay, though as far as i understand David Deutsch the quantum changes cause only their own ripple effects locally, the rest of the multiverse is the same until quantum effects fork locally again. It’s also not clear that quantum effects would cause that much difference unless they cause more serious non quantum effects.
michael stanwick
1 year ago
Twitter produced a rash of counterfactuals …
Yes. But the description of the alternatives in the counterfactuals seem to me to have an in-built sense that they are the morally good ones – if only we had those alternatives, we would be on the right side of history.
From DC comics, via quantum mechanics, to trenchant advice about how to handle our increasingly fraught world. Not bad going for one essay.
I have noticed this is common habit with people suffering from Never My Fault Syndrome.
I haven’t seen the movie. I have, however, read Larry Niven’s *All the Myriad Ways* from the collection of short stories by the same name. And this short story outlines what I think is the great problem with the every-decision-splits-both-ways version of the multiverse, which is ‘Whither Agency’?
Ever struggle with a very difficult decision? Why bother? You made it both ways. Tempted to do something evil? Somebody is giving into temptation right now, why not you? Feeling suicidal? Why not? Some fraction of you are going to die and others will survive. What does it matter? Does it matter if the (six-sided) dice are loaded? All six outcomes are going to show up, so what’s the point?
The covid counter-factual is extremely important as there was a divergence from widely recognised standards such as focusing on those with the highest risk and restrictions on human rights as an absolute last resort.
It is matter for justice, and as the personification of justice with weighing scales demonstrates – justice is about balance. So yes, learn the lessons to ensure it never happens again, but there needs to be visible punishment as part of the deterrent.
There are activists who pushed for the egregious measures like school closures which will have long term ramifications. There needs to be an appropriate level of justice, and part of that is an appropriate level of punishment.
Why should someone be punished for their best guess being wrong, or having had unpleasant side-effects? At least someone who feels that they suffered from having their school closed is alive to feel this way. In a counter-factual pandemic they might not be here to feel anything.
Good essay, though as far as i understand David Deutsch the quantum changes cause only their own ripple effects locally, the rest of the multiverse is the same until quantum effects fork locally again. It’s also not clear that quantum effects would cause that much difference unless they cause more serious non quantum effects.
Twitter produced a rash of counterfactuals …
Yes. But the description of the alternatives in the counterfactuals seem to me to have an in-built sense that they are the morally good ones – if only we had those alternatives, we would be on the right side of history.