I read a detective story with this subject. I don't wish to spoil it for anyone, so stop reading now if that's a worry!
--------------------------------------------- I think it may have been in "The strange case of Mrs Hudson's cat" by Colin Bruce. Someone is found dead, connected up to some sort of quantum suicide machine. I think the idea was to only survive in universes in which he won the lottery, or a large bet, or something similar. On 15 March 2014 21:08, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
