Re: What would make you believe?

IsaacKuo wrote:
> Well, this "problem" is a problem for the very first trip, now
> isn't it?  The quantum mechanical technobabble solution is
> the same in either case.  All of the slightly different versions
> of you really are you in a sense, so when multiple versions
> of you "collide" by piling onto the same universe, it's really
> just you overlapping with yourself.  It's the same thing that
> goes on when multiple versions of a photon passing through
> a double-slit interferometer overlaps with itself.

Actually, I think it might be able to solve the problem even for the 
first trip. It seems to me that as soon as the traversable wormhole is 
established you could treat the two universes you're connecting together 
effectively become just one combined universe. Whenever one of them 
diverges the other one necessarily diverges as well, which strictly 
enforces the "only one copy of the traveler in the two universes" 
restriction.

The quantum technobabble solution you propose works too, but it doesn't 
solve the addressing issue that was the original reason I settled on 
permanent wormholes for. With wormholes you don't need to worry about 
coming up with a way of specifying the "location" of a parallel 
universe, the specific parallel universe you want is always whatever's 
on the other side of the one particular wormhole you've got stored in a
box.