Subject: No imaginary worlds.

From: Invent Yourself <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 00:59:43 -0500 (EST)

On Sat, 10 Feb 2001, John Cowan wrote:

> Jorge Llambias scripsit:
>
> > Either every conceivable world is possible or only the real
> > world is possible. I think those are the least arbitrary
> > definitions of "possible".
>
> Well, perhaps it depends on what "conceivable" means. (Yes, I sound
> like Bill Clinton.)
>
> Is there a possible world in which 2+2=5, or in which false statements
> are true? (I once incautiously expressed this latter as "all lies are
> true", and And ate me up.) I think not.

It is quite possible that there is only one possible world. And that all
others could only have arrived through violation of the conservation of
momentum. Quantum physics may allow us an escape, but do we really have to
go that far?

Since I am not in any world that I am not in (!), and neither are you,
then I don't believe we have to confuse matters with hypothetical
worlds. The idea of multiple worlds assumes no communication between them,
but if everyone is stuck in one world and cannot detect any others, no
fact-based statements can be made about any others. For rational
discussion they do not exist.

And if no fact-based statements can be made about them, you're damned
right I will assert a "possible world" where 2 + 2 = 5! And there's
nothing you can say about it!

We are conflating two concepts: "possible" and "believable". It
believable to assert that John might not have married Gail; we think those
choices are based on the random luck of meeting people on the right street
corners, and so forth. But that cannot be proven. Since there's only one
world, we cannot compare it to others. When I flip a coin and it lands
heads, I cannot start making statements about a world where it landed
tails instead. Yet, people think such a world is possible -- without any
proof, but based on their ignorance of why such a world is prohibited.

If they knew the long chains of causality binding all things together,
they might realize that to postulate a world where John and Gail never
married is exactly identical to postulating a world where 2 + 2 = 5.

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