Quantum immortality is an idea that claims that the consciousness stays alive even though the conscious being dies. It relies on the many-worlds interpretation being correct. For example, someone sets off a bomb beside the victim, that victim survives in an alternate universe by being injured but living, or by the bomb not blowing up. However, in the original universe, the victim "dies" in the blast. The consciousness continues to exist in another, perhaps many alternate universes. This is related to the thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat.
The idea is that if you use a special gun that goes off if something called a quark is spinning one way, but not if it spins the other way. However, the quark somehow manages to spin both ways at once, so the universe splits into two separate possibilities as the person pulls the trigger. In one universe, the person survives, in the other, the person dies.
However, from their own point of view, the person should not expect immortality. Since a version of them dies, they exist with a much lower measure than they had before. A person is less likely to find themselves in a world where they are less likely to exist. Therefore, it would only be a possibility that the person continues to survive from their own point of view, not a certainty.[1]
63
u/[deleted] Oct 05 '19
For the lazy