As of late, the Quantum Immortality hypothesis based on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics has generated a lot of hype.
As a quick recap, Quantum Immortality is the idea that it is impossible to die from a subjective standpoint. That is, if you die from any cause, your subjective experience will instantly shift to another quantum timeline where you are still alive; and this parallel timeline is necessarily created any time you die, because everything that happens is ultimately caused by the collapse of a quantum superposition.
A big critique of this idea is the fact that QI would also make it impossible to sleep or go under anesthesia for the same reasons it would prevent death.
>your subjective experience will instantly shift to another quantum timeline Isn't it a better critique to point out that this makes no sense?
Jonathan Cooper
So, QI means that the next moment after you death, your consciousness gets, let's say, teleported to another universe where you didn't die? If that were to happen, the events leading up to your death would have to be different, so, there's a chance that the transition is noticeable. However, I don't think such a transition has been observed. As for sleep, I don't see why they would have to trigger it as your consciousness doesn't end, it temporarily stops.
Jacob Sanchez
Biggest cope in scientific history
Eli Roberts
>impossible to sleep or go under anesthesia why would that be? if its the idea that consciousness ceases i don't think that that really checks out, your brain is still function when you're unconscious, even under anesthesia you can dream (i think?)
my critique of this is what happens in the case of someone simply dying of old age. is that an exception and for what reason would it be if it is. neat idea overall though.
Lincoln Roberts
That isn’t quantum immortality at all.
Quantum immortality is the idea that in a Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics every possibly occurs in infinite universes, weighted by probability.
The idea then is that for every event that does kill you, there is an alternate universe where it didn’t. There should therefore be at least one universe where you don’t die of anything; this is the quantum immortality.
It’s not reality-jumping consciousness or any other pseudoscience bullshit.
Parker Fisher
>As for sleep, I don't see why they would have to trigger it as your consciousness doesn't end, it temporarily stops. But that's the problem, if QI is true, it shouldn't be possible to have consciousness gaps in your own past. If death causes a shift to another timeline, then sleep should too because there will always be another universe where you didn't sleep instead.
>It’s not reality-jumping consciousness or any other pseudoscience bullshit. According to our current understanding of consciousness, reality jumping can (but not necessarily is) true if QI is true.
Hudson Price
It might be some fringe stuff not sure I could even approach the math to dis/prove, so what consequence of this idea is/are there?
Owen Adams
This is a little silly to me. Who’s to say that conciseness even remains in the same person moment to moment. It could be my body inherits a different coscioness every second of the day but because the stored memory is the same each consenstous believes itself to have been there forever. The typical interpretation of the self is such that it ends on death. If you interpret the self to be something else, like Buddhists do, then of course it may be immortal.
Ian Allen
What exactly is it that tells you that you can jump between realties?
Jonathan Kelly
Impossible to say for sure what the consequences are. It could be great and guarantee that immortality tech will be invented in your future.... Or it could be terrible and guarantee that you will live forever in agony as a Boltzmann brain
Isaiah Nelson
Was there ever a counter argument to the Boltzmann brain or can it be safely assumed I’m a disembodied brain
Brayden Evans
If consciousness is illusory and self generated, then reality jumping is trivial. If it is substantial and non illusory, then reality jumping probably doesn't work.
Logan Collins
Ah, so according to QI there should be no gaps in consciousness? Well, when you sleep, you can say that there's no real gap, as you wake up right after. Wouldn't you be able to say that the moment you fall asleep, you travel to another universe where you wake up?
Logan Perez
One counter argument might be that it's never been proven that brains can spontaneously assemble.
Bentley Stewart
Well if it's illusory then it's impossible to gather any evidence that it even exists so what's the point?
Christopher Harris
You're describing scenarios where your present consciousness is somehow magically altered and shifted seamlessly to another reality where you didn't die, but that would mean that death does not exist and every that ever was alive, all billion trillion of them from microbes to full fledged multicellular organisms are all somehow "still alive" somewhere. >b-b-but it's only conscious beings! The claim that consciousness is somehow only related to humans is laughable, as crows and fucking dolphins have shown to have a level of consciousness on par with our own -- limited only by the fact that they have no way to reasonably manipulate their surroundings like we can. If I shoot myself in the head, it disrupts my ability to be conscious of the world and I go into a state of "pre birth" -- namely nonexistence in the sense that my self is no longer present among the material universe. There is no evidence to suggest that my soul, consciousness, or sense of being just gets whisked away somewhere. This is the sort of shit suicidal emos think about in the back of class where they romanticize shooting up schools.
Lucas Garcia
Really the best counterargument is that it would just be really weird if it were true and lead to lots of nonsensical conclusions. It's kinda like when singularities are discovered in math algorithms, it usually just points to a gap in understanding that needs to be resolved.
Cooper Parker
[citation needed]
Brayden Phillips
>boltzmann brain I hate this stupid shit, it's not even remotely fucking interesting to think about. It's like saying "what if humans could fly" or some shit like that. I don't get how people get famous for just having a fucking imagination. Here's my theory:
>Huntsman Theory >due to random fluctuations on a level we cannot perceive within singularities there is a complex structure formed called a Huntsman that scours the edges of the event horizon sucking up light particles and thats why we can't see black holes
Where's my fucking nobel prize or wiki page or scientific theory clout?
Jaxon Baker
>If consciousness is illusory and self generated, then reality jumping is trivial.
How so?
Owen Moore
Doesn’t even make sense because it’s basically saying you are unable to die isn’t it? And if you were unable to die then how are you dead in other universes ? Not to mention if a gun has six rounds eventually you’ll blow your brains out, there’s no way around that.
Noah Scott
he’s just using big words without knowing what he’s saying
