On 15 Mar 2014, at 03:21, Matt Bell wrote:
This may very possibly be an idea that has already been discussed (I
am very new to this topic, so I'm still exploring the landscape of
ideas), but it has been on my mind recently.
Welcome Matt.
If you subscribe to the theories of MWI/UDA, then the idea of
quantum immortality/suicide follows (an observer only perceives
universes where it continues to exist, so from its perspective it
exists forever).
OK. Nice. Note that Tegmark, in this list, seems to oppose too quantum
immortality (and of course its generalization: comp immortality),
despite accepting the "suicide" argument. I don't separate them, but I
think it is not controllable. See below.
From this, it follows that an observer can "program" the universe
into any possible state with the following process:
- Choose a condition for the universe (e.g. "It will start raining
at my location within 10 seconds.")
- Evaluate whether you are in a universe where the condition is true
("10 seconds have passed. Has it started raining?")
- If the condition is false, stop existing (in a human context,
suicide :/).
That is the hard part. In practice you cannot annihilate you
completely with probability 1. You need that the probability of the
"condition being realized" is much higher than the probability of
surviving a bomb by quantum tunnelling, etc.
There is also a high probability that you don't end up in a universe
satisfying your condition, but in a universe where you believe that
the universe satisfies the condition. Changing a bit your brain is
more probable than changing the "universe".
- If the process was followed correctly (the condition was evaluated
accurately) the observer should only exist in universes with the
chosen state
This relies on the assumption that there is a possible universe
where the condition is true, and that the condition can be
effectively evaluated.
Which is made difficult as illustrated above in the second paragraph.
I'm not yet sure about what to think about conditions about past
events. What happens if the chosen condition was "It started raining
less than an hour ago."? This would possibly work as expected if you
don't evaluate the condition until after you chose it (you were in a
soundproof, windowless room for the last hour, so you didn't know it
started raining until after you decided on the condition).
Any thoughts? Or relevant material I should know about? Also, let me
know if there's some huge flaw in my thinking.
I'm looking forward to learning from you all and trying to
participate in the discussion.
Your idea is possible in theory, but the theory can explain why in
practice it might be dubious, as you cannot evaluate really the
condition, and changing your "reality" by self-killing might end you
in a sort of cul-de-sac world where you might believe anything. I think.
Bruno
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