Restoration without Rediscovery: Authentic De Novo Restoration Without Rediscovery: Authentic De Recreation of Lost Information in a Multiple-Worlds Novo Recreation of Lost Information in a MultiSetting ple-Worlds Setting By R. Michael Perry By R. Michael Perry Abstract A method is proposed, in principle, for restoring lost information which cannot be recovered or rediscovered from the environment by any process usually conceived within the scope of archaeology. This includes future archaeological methods that may be developed. Instead, the lost information is recreated de novo using a quantum-random process. An assumption of a multiple-worlds cosmology provides that different, lost versions of the missing information are recreated across parallel branches of reality, so that overall, there is no violation of information conservation and the restorations are all authentic. Refinements including partial restoration and use of probability weights are explored. 1. Introduction Information about past events has considerable interest, not merely from the academic perspective of scholarly pursuits, but in many facets of life, including the deeply personal. In many ways, we cherish the past, or otherwise find it informative and instructive, and wish to preserve a record of it. Information is lost, however: such processes as melting, burning and decay produce states that apparently cannot be reversed and we are left wondering what fascinating, horrific, or endearing material the obliterated remains might have described. One strong motive for addressing information loss concerns the death of persons we care about. We try to preserve mementos of these people, and search records to see what other information may survive. In the field of cryonics, there is particular interest in the cryopreserved remains of humans as a source of information that might make it possible to revive these individuals at a future date.1 If the information turns out to be missing or has large gaps, as might happen from any of several causes before, during, or after the cryopreservation occurred, what course would be best to follow? This question applies to other cases as well if one envisions a future with expected capabilities well beyond those at present. Some envision a future “quantum archaeology” that will make it possible, directly, to restore lost information, which then
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must not have been “lost” after all, but only awaiting a proper technique of rediscovery.4 Quoting Zoltan Istvan: “Once we have the computational power, we can reverse engineer parts of our galaxy or even nearly the entire universe to determine every little spark of energy, movement, moment and thought that has ever happened in it, including the complete personality, mind and life of [a lost loved one].”17 A related scenario has it that our whole universe is presently in a computer simulation of some advanced civilization,14 so that all “lost” information could be restored someday, if the “Sysop” so desires. In the scenario imagined here, however, we are not in a simulation and the lost information stays lost – at least in the sense that no future technology is able to rediscover it by clever or dedicated processing in a single-world context. Yet a recovery of the lost original is still possible, if one grants the metaphysical assumption of parallel branches of reality such as encountered in the Everett many-worlds scenario (MWI).6 There events are constantly occurring in different varieties, splitting the observer and associated environs into alternate versions of history. In this way new information is created, particularly when new history unfolds and is recorded. The new history, however, will be shadowed in other, freshly split branches of reality by alternate versions, so that overall, there is no net creation of information, in the sense that the process is deterministic. (The “new-information” is from the standpoint of a particular observer-continuer in a particular branch, but not the whole.) One knows in advance what will happen in all the branches: simply “whatever is possible under the laws of physics.” Loss of information in turn can be interpreted in different ways but in essence, and from the point of view of the observer, the parallel branches coalesce (superpose) and a state is restored much like, if not identical to, what occurred originally, before the splitting occurred. As this happens, the observercontinuers in the parallel branches are restored to equivalent copies of each other, in effect a single observer comparable to what once existed. The state in fact is not identical to the original, however, since the loss is known to this (virtually) single observer, and we imagine, remedying it and restoring what is lost is seen as a desirable goal.
Cryonics / 1st1Quarter 2021
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