The Destiny of the Dead – Part III

The surest way to detect a crank online is when they start talking about quantum physics. Therefore, it would be reasonable to classify this blog as the work of a crank and stop reading now. Or perhaps you might continue reading for the same reason. I will try not to say anything that someone with more letters after their name than me hasn’t already said. That being explained, I will proceed to tell you that you may be immortal, and why you may hope that you are not.

Everything and everybody dies. That seems simple enough. We know that everyone will eventually die because we witness the inevitable death of everything. One day others will mourn your passing. The question is, will you ever experience your own death? According to the theory of Quantum Immortality, the answer is “no”.

The idea of Quantum Immortality flows from the so-called “Many-Worlds” theory of quantum physics. Put simply, the fundamental particles of which the Universe seems to be comprised exhibit behaviors that seem to be unpredictable. On a scale smaller than the atom, it is impossible to state definitively what causes will create what effects. One can only give probabilities. Since science is based on predictability, there are a number of ways to deal with the apparent randomness of elementary particles. One way is to ignore it, and attribute the apparent randomness to our brains being unable to understand the actual nature of reality. Another way to assume the existence of yet-to-be-discovered governing principle behind reality. A third way to explain the fundamental randomness of reality is to state that all possible outcomes happen in separate parallel universes.

On the surface the “Many-Worlds” interpretation seems to the weirdest and most improbable solution of all. Yet, many scientist champion it as being the only model that actually fits the mathematics of quantum mechanics without requiring changes to the theory. The problem with changing quantum mechanics is that it has been an enormously successful model of reality, one that underlies such things as computers, broadcast television, and cell phones. There has never been a single experimental observation that has contradicted quantum mechanics. Therefore, however strange its implications might be we are currently forced to accept them as fact.

So, how could the existence of multiple Universes make you immortal? Understand that multiple universes would mean there are lots of versions of you that are all equally real, only each copy is slightly different than the others. Every time something, no matter how small, could have happened in a different way there would be a separate Universes where each path was followed. In some Universes the person with your name and face may have different friends, a different job, etc. If there are versions of yourself that experience all possible outcomes, there may always be at least one version of yourself that survives against improbable odds. No matter how unlikely, if there is any chance at all of living through an experience at least one version of yourself would. Observers in those other Universes would see you die, but the in that single Universe you would be aware of having survived against impossible odds. Quantum Immortality assumes that you will always be the version of yourself that has continual awareness of your own life.

An obvious objection to Quantum Immortality comes from the observation that even given multiple universes you are most likely to be the version of yourself that does in fact die. In accordance with the idea of Quantum Immortality, however, one can never actually know what Universe one inhabits, other than knowing that it has a past where you have always survived, and has a future where you always survive. The theory assumes that since you cannot experience your own death, the future you experience will always be the one where you do not die.

There is a tremendous downside to Quantum Immortality, one that is certain to make many people hope it isn’t true. If the theory is true, while you don’t die, everyone else around you does. Everyone else you know will remain immortal in their own separate universes, of course, where they observe versions of you die. Also, you must remain aware for as long as there is any chance of remaining aware, no matter what form that chance takes. Therefore, if your ultimate survival means experiencing the extremely improbable fate of being a disembodied brain in a jar in some alien museum ( a la H.P. Lovecraft’s Mi-Go), that’s what might happen to you.  Quantum Immortality doesn’t just mean we are blessed with life – at also means we might be condemned to it.

The big problem with believing in Quantum Immortality is that it is impossible to devise a sane objective test of it. It has been suggested that a researcher could put oneself into the position of Schrodinger’s Cat. If Quantum Immortality is true, the researcher will never die. Unfortunately, outside observers will see his death, making the proof purely subjective. One could point to any improbable survivals in one’s own life, as evidence (albeit weak) of Quantum Immortality. Since you are obviously still alive, you must not have experienced all the possible deaths that could have befallen you, and therefore might expect not to experience any possible future deaths.

Now that’s I’ve demonstrated my crank credentials by discussing an extremely strange interpretation of quantum physics, I hope to at last be invited to the tin-foil hat fashion show. I hear that bottle-cap inserts (for extra scrambling of the government mind-control rays) are really “in” this season.