Which universe are we in?

[Tim May]

On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 07:43  PM, Stephen Paul King wrote:

> Dear Tim,
>
>     Are you tacitly assuming some kind of communication between 
> observers
> when you make the claim of a "convergence"? Adsent said communications,
> could we show that the convergence would still obtain? Have you ever 
> seen
> any discussion of the notion of cyclic or periodic gossiping in Comp 
> Sci?
>
>

No, I was arguing that while the future may be multi-worlded, everything 
we know about science (evidence, archaeology, measurements, ...) points 
to a _single_ past.

For example, a single past world line for me, for you, for Hal, for 
Chaucer, for Einstein.

Now we may not know what this world line is very accurately, but as we 
look at more closely, e.g., by examining the photographs someone may 
have taken, or their diaries, or whatever, the more we home in on what 
that world line was. We never look closely and see two or three or N 
different histories, we just see a higher fidelity view of what we must 
assume is the One True Past.

I don't doubt that Hal gets the sense that many potential Hals could 
have resulted in the current Hal...an interesting notion. But everything 
does in fact point to a One True Past which various measurements get 
closer and closer to, and which no measurements contradict.

This is what I meant by "convergence." Homing in, getting closer, 
sharpening the image, filling in the details.

As for "tacitly assuming some kind of communication between observers," 
I am _explicitly_ saying that observers get together and compare 
notes...and they find no contradictions, if they are honest observers.

Hal may have meant something different, perhaps.


--Tim May

--Tim May
(.sig for Everything list background)
Corralitos, CA. Born in 1951. Retired from Intel in 1986.
Current main interest: category and topos theory, math, quantum reality, 
cosmology.
Background: physics, Intel, crypto, Cypherpunks