cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/67288062

Ope, better check for new Mandela effects

Oh an opportunity to bring up the game Drifter. Loved the story in that and without going into too much it’s also a form of sci-fi immortality.

Quantum immortality has never made any sense because even if you are so delusional to believe in the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics, if you die there's like a near infinite number of branches where you're still alive, so how does your "soul" or whatever know which specific one of those branches to hop to? People always speak of it as if you "jump to the branch where you're still alive"... but there isn't one of them. There is an infinite number of them. So how does it pick the specific one you find yourself on?

A lot of really smart people are really dumb.

It doesn't have to pick any specific one; any branch in which you're alive will do.

Nobody's really "jumping", you just don't die. The universe constructs itself such that you don't die—there's nothing more to it.

It is a funny superpower idea. Like turning invisible. Which also doesn't make any sense if you think about it.

It doesn’t have to pick any specific one; any branch in which you’re alive will do.

That means it picks a branch at random, which contradictions Many Worlds' premise that the universe is fully deterministic.

Nobody’s really “jumping”, you just don’t die.

No, if it is real you are absolutely jumping. If I were to step in a cloning machine, there would be a clone of me. But that clone wouldn't be me because I wouldn't see out of the clones eyes. The clone would have its own experience and would go on to live its own, different life. If I suddenly died, I would not expect my consciousness to suddenly hop out of my body and take over the clones'.

If I died I would just die. The clone would live on because the clone isn't me. Similarly, the other "yous" in different branches of the wavefunction would basically be like copies of you. They'd not be you, they'd all have their own independent lives. If you died in this branch you'd just die. To claim you continue living in another branch is equivalent to claiming your experience somehow jumps out of your body and into a clone's.

It is a funny superpower idea. Like turning invisible. Which also doesn’t make any sense if you think about it.

I am just saying it doesn't actually make logical sense if you take it seriously as something real. If it's just a funny comic book idea then I have no issue with it, I'm just cautioning people to not think quantum physics actually does support the idea, because some people seem to think it does.

That means it picks a branch at random, which contradictions Many Worlds' premise that the universe is fully deterministic.

Or it picks the most convenient one. I don't know what this word 'random' means. If what you mean is 'arbitrary', there are lots of reasons you might arbitrarily pick this or that.

To claim you continue living in another branch is equivalent to claiming your experience somehow jumps

For one, I don't actually care. But for two, most depictions I've seen portray this as a passive effect. It is not you that moves, it is the universe that moves around you. The details of how this actually works, or doesn't, is for nerds in comic book stores to discuss.

I'm just cautioning people to not think quantum physics actually does support the idea,

At the risk of sounding a bit argumentative—and I really don't mean to—Who?

At the risk of sounding a bit argumentative—and I really don’t mean to—Who?

You? Why are you arguing with me then, if it's just for fun and you admit it doesn't actually make any physical sense?

You think that I think quantum immortality is doable?

Why are you inserting "doable" into this discussion?

That would be because you said this:

I'm just cautioning people to not think quantum physics actually does support the idea,

Yes we are talking about if it is actually something plausible support by quantum physics, not if you are certain you can literally do it, but if quantum physics gives any sort of legitimacy to the idea at all as a coherent possibility. It doesn't, it's quantum woo.

Yeah, but I don't see anyone engaging with it on the basis of it being plausible. It's a joke super power.

I can be more direct, if you like. I don't think that you're really cautioning anyone, I think that you just dislike the concept and want to see that sentiment reflected in other people. The same way that some people argue about whether a popular song is bad or not.

It doesn't really matter, I suppose, I was just hoping you would see the social faux pas.

Yeah so what I said, I don't believe, because you have psychoanalyzed me and found that I actually believe something else... fuck off. #blocked