A colleague has been soliciting messages for his friendship book. I hope
he's not planning on leaving. Anyway, here's what I wrote. It's from
the heart.
May 2009 Archives
First assuming wave function collapse is not only an epiphenomenon of quantum decoherence
and that the superposition of eigenstates really does in some sense
reduce to a single state upon interaction with the external world (i.e.
on observation) because observation places the observer into one of all possible worlds, that some variant of the many-minds interpretation holds true, and finally that due to those last two we've thrown Occam's Razor in the bin because it was a bit rusty, then this leads to quantum immortality.
Since every possible "choice" is played out in an infinite number of universes, if you point a gun at your head and pull the trigger with a 50% chance of a bullet being chambered, then for you there will be two possible worlds: in one you will live, in the other, you will die. In the one in which you die, you're not conscious any more, so the only universe in which you are still aware of what's happening is the one where you weren't shot. If you pull the trigger again, the same happens, and so on, forever; from your own perspective, you will never die. This of course ignores all the possible worlds where you are horrifically injured but survive instead of dying. It also ignores a corollary, which is that although you will never experience your own death, eventually everyone else you know will die. But let's ignore those.
Coupling this with the assumption that mind and body are separate takes things further. With only a tenuous connection to the physical world the mind has its own trans-temporal identity and your perception of the uniqueness of your consciousness is correct: there is only one "you". There is only one observer for your life, in all the possible universes. You don't perceive any of the other universes because you are not in them; therefore, in all other possible universes, there is no seat of consciousness in your brain, no driver at the wheel, no ghost in the machine. Your unique and precious soul inhabits only the corporeal shell of this world, and no others.
There are an almost infinite number of possible universes. For each person, there is only one consciousness. Since each person's consciousness follows its own track through the multiplicity of possible worlds, and the finite number of people divided by the almost infinite number of worlds is almost zero, the least likely world is one containing everyone's consciousness at once, and the most likely world is one containing no consciousnesses at all. Since the only world you can experience is one in which your consciousness is present, the most likely world for you to experience is one in which there is exactly one consciousness present: your own.
Rather than taking the solipsist view that the external universe is unreal, instead we infer that although the external universe is real, external consciousnesses are fleeting and transitory, where present at all. Although all the people you see and touch and communicate with appear normal, for the most part they are rudderless ships, empty shells, devoid of breath and spirit - much as you are if ever you experience the common psychological symptom of depersonalization (which could be seen as a transition period between possible worlds). The symptom of derealization could be seen as a similar disconnect between where your consciousness is and where it "ought" to be, or simply as a brief realisation that the world is filled with talking meat that only briefly contains life as another soul's path through the multiverse intersects with your own.
A cheery thought to take with you on your next psychedelic journey. Look into the eyes of anyone else and see a single spark infinitesimally divided, a flickering light with a probability of next to nothing.
Alternatively, reject dualism and solipsism, take Occam's Razor out of the bin, and embrace quantum decoherence to save everybody else's soul.
There was to be a comedy explanation chart and all that sort of thing but I lost the funny. So you'll just have to take this insane ramble without pictures.
Since every possible "choice" is played out in an infinite number of universes, if you point a gun at your head and pull the trigger with a 50% chance of a bullet being chambered, then for you there will be two possible worlds: in one you will live, in the other, you will die. In the one in which you die, you're not conscious any more, so the only universe in which you are still aware of what's happening is the one where you weren't shot. If you pull the trigger again, the same happens, and so on, forever; from your own perspective, you will never die. This of course ignores all the possible worlds where you are horrifically injured but survive instead of dying. It also ignores a corollary, which is that although you will never experience your own death, eventually everyone else you know will die. But let's ignore those.
Coupling this with the assumption that mind and body are separate takes things further. With only a tenuous connection to the physical world the mind has its own trans-temporal identity and your perception of the uniqueness of your consciousness is correct: there is only one "you". There is only one observer for your life, in all the possible universes. You don't perceive any of the other universes because you are not in them; therefore, in all other possible universes, there is no seat of consciousness in your brain, no driver at the wheel, no ghost in the machine. Your unique and precious soul inhabits only the corporeal shell of this world, and no others.
There are an almost infinite number of possible universes. For each person, there is only one consciousness. Since each person's consciousness follows its own track through the multiplicity of possible worlds, and the finite number of people divided by the almost infinite number of worlds is almost zero, the least likely world is one containing everyone's consciousness at once, and the most likely world is one containing no consciousnesses at all. Since the only world you can experience is one in which your consciousness is present, the most likely world for you to experience is one in which there is exactly one consciousness present: your own.
Rather than taking the solipsist view that the external universe is unreal, instead we infer that although the external universe is real, external consciousnesses are fleeting and transitory, where present at all. Although all the people you see and touch and communicate with appear normal, for the most part they are rudderless ships, empty shells, devoid of breath and spirit - much as you are if ever you experience the common psychological symptom of depersonalization (which could be seen as a transition period between possible worlds). The symptom of derealization could be seen as a similar disconnect between where your consciousness is and where it "ought" to be, or simply as a brief realisation that the world is filled with talking meat that only briefly contains life as another soul's path through the multiverse intersects with your own.
A cheery thought to take with you on your next psychedelic journey. Look into the eyes of anyone else and see a single spark infinitesimally divided, a flickering light with a probability of next to nothing.
Alternatively, reject dualism and solipsism, take Occam's Razor out of the bin, and embrace quantum decoherence to save everybody else's soul.
There was to be a comedy explanation chart and all that sort of thing but I lost the funny. So you'll just have to take this insane ramble without pictures.
