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Article 6116 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: holmes@opal.idbsu.edu (Randall Holmes)
Subject: Re: Hypothesis: I am a Transducer (Formerly "Virtual Grounding")
Message-ID: <1992Jun5.195713.27280@guinness.idbsu.edu>
Keywords: quantum mechanics,consciousness
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Organization: Boise State University Math Dept.
References: <1992Jun5.130022.26367@cs.ucf.edu> <1992Jun5.140801.23688@cs.yale.edu> <1992Jun5.170559.305@cs.ucf.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 19:57:13 GMT
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In article <1992Jun5.170559.305@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes:
[...]
>
>Many worlds does eliminate the requirement that a conscious
>observer determines the moment of observation.  It does so,
>however, by postulating that all possible outcomes of all
>possible experimental observations occur and continue to 
>evolve in parallel.  Conscious observers then must have
>the peculiar ability to sense only one possible observational
>track.  How this observational track is selected is not
>specified.

The whole point is that it is not _selected_!

  It always struck me that selecting a single 
>observational track for a conscious observer in Many Worlds 
>was exactly equivalent to the conscious observer "collapsing
>the wavefunction" in more conventional approaches.

There is no selection; it is simply that the different versions of the
observer in different worlds (all of whom exist) have no way to
communicate with one another, so are not aware of one another
(presumably interference phenomena remain possible, but are unlikely
due to the macroscopic nature of the observer).  Each one wonders why
he was "selected", along with all of the others.

[...]
 
>Thomas Clarke
>Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central FL
>12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32826
>(407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, clarke@acme.ucf.edu





















-- 
The opinions expressed		|     --Sincerely,
above are not the "official"	|     M. Randall Holmes
opinions of any person		|     Math. Dept., Boise State Univ.
or institution.			|     holmes@opal.idbsu.edu


