Post 47: An Optimist's Quantum Immortality: Side Quest 3
In yesterday’s conversation about the various interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, (which really only talked about Many Worlds given space-time constraints. . . I really will try to get back to the others in other posts!), ChatGPT brought up a concept I had never heard of - Quantum Immortality.
Quantum Immortality is the idea that “if the Many-Worlds Interpretation is correct and consciousness follows a continuous, subjective experience through branching realities, then there will always be a version of ‘you’ that remains alive, no matter how many life-threatening quantum events occur.”
At first I thought this was sort of silly, but then ChatGPT started being pretty dismissive about the idea and that made me feel argumentative :). So I started really thinking it through and by the end I convinced ChatGPT that it was wrong and that Quantum Immortality is in fact a necessary consequence of the Many-Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics! That was a first, I don’t think I have ever gotten it to fundamentally change its “mind.”
I still have no idea if Many-Worlds is true or if there is a hole in the logic I used to convince ChatGPT that it was wrong, but, regardless it was a fun conversation! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did having it!
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Note: The indented text highlighted in grey are my prompts and the un-highlighted text is that of the LLM.
And an apology: When I go back and read my own conversations I often notice typos in my prompts. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a way to go back and correct them without altering every response that comes after the prompt. I can’t change it, but I can strive to do better going forward. . . (no promises, sometimes I just get into the moment and don’t reread my prompts before hitting enter. . .)
