References Quantum suicide and immortality Article Talk Read Edit View history Tools Appearance hide Text Small Standard Large Width Standard Wide Color (beta) Automatic Light Dark From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quantum suicide is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics and the philosophy of physics. Purportedly, it can falsify any interpretation of quantum mechanics other than the many-worlds interpretation by means of a variation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment from the cat's point of view. Quantum immortality refers to the subjective experience of surviving quantum suicide. It is sometimes conjectured to be applicable to real-world causes of death as well.[1][2] As a thought experiment, quantum suicide is an intellectual exercise in which an abstract setup is followed through to its logical consequences merely to prove a theoretical point. Virtually all physicists and philosophers of science who have described it, especially in popularized treatments,[3] underscore that it relies on contrived, idealized circumstances that may be impossible or exceedingly difficult to realize, and that its theoretical premises are controversial even among supporters of the many-worlds interpretation. Thus, as cosmologist Anthony Aguirre warns, "it would be foolish (and selfish) in the extreme to let this possibility guide one's actions in any life-and-death question."[4] History Hugh Everett III did not mention quantum suicide or quantum immortality in writing; his work was intended as a solution to the paradoxes of quantum mechanics. According to Eugene Shikhovtsev's biography of Everett, "Everett firmly believed that his many-worlds theory guaranteed him immortality: his consciousness, he argued, is bound at each branching to follow whatever path does not lead to death".
2. The Many-Worlds View (Quantum Immortality) In the Many-Worlds Interpretation, the universe doesn't choose one outcome; it splits into two realities every time a quantum event occurs. Universe A: The gun fires, and the physicist dies. Universe B: The gun clicks, and the physicist lives. Here is the crucial part: You cannot experience being dead. Therefore, your consciousness only continues in Universe B. If you pull the trigger again, the universe splits again. In one branch you die, but in the other, you hear a "click." Since you can only experience the branch where you exist, from your subjective perspective, the gun will never fire. You could pull the trigger a million times, and you would miraculously survive every single time, because you are "bound" to the path of life.