Anthropics: why probability isn't enough
This paper argues that the current treatment of anthropic and self-locating problems over-emphasises the importance of anthropic probabilities, and ignores other relevant and important factors, such as whether the various copies of the agents in question consider that they are acting in a linked fas...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | Report |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado em: |
Future of Humanity Institute
2016
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| _version_ | 1826312537956679680 |
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| author | Armstrong, S |
| author_facet | Armstrong, S |
| author_sort | Armstrong, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This paper argues that the current treatment of anthropic and self-locating problems over-emphasises the importance of anthropic probabilities, and ignores other relevant and important factors, such as whether the various copies of the agents in question consider that they are acting in a linked fashion and whether they are mutually altruistic towards each other. These issues, generally irrelevant for non-anthropic problems, come to the forefront in anthropic situations and are at least as important as the anthropic probabilities: indeed they can erase the difference between different theories of anthropic probability, or increase their divergence. These help to reinterpret the decisions, rather than probabilities, as the fundamental objects of interest in anthropic problems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T03:55:54Z |
| format | Report |
| id | oxford-uuid:425fc33f-4fc5-47c6-b37c-8dbc09f8f91e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T03:55:54Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Future of Humanity Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:425fc33f-4fc5-47c6-b37c-8dbc09f8f91e2024-03-14T14:14:35ZAnthropics: why probability isn't enoughReporthttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_93fcuuid:425fc33f-4fc5-47c6-b37c-8dbc09f8f91eEnglishSymplectic ElementsFuture of Humanity Institute2016Armstrong, SThis paper argues that the current treatment of anthropic and self-locating problems over-emphasises the importance of anthropic probabilities, and ignores other relevant and important factors, such as whether the various copies of the agents in question consider that they are acting in a linked fashion and whether they are mutually altruistic towards each other. These issues, generally irrelevant for non-anthropic problems, come to the forefront in anthropic situations and are at least as important as the anthropic probabilities: indeed they can erase the difference between different theories of anthropic probability, or increase their divergence. These help to reinterpret the decisions, rather than probabilities, as the fundamental objects of interest in anthropic problems. |
| spellingShingle | Armstrong, S Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title | Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title_full | Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title_fullStr | Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title_short | Anthropics: why probability isn't enough |
| title_sort | anthropics why probability isn t enough |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT armstrongs anthropicswhyprobabilityisntenough |