Discussion Has anyone ever heard of the quantum suicide experiment?

[Ghostmedic]

The quantum suicide experiment more or less theorized that someone could prove that "many worlds" hypothesis of quantum physics is reality by attaching a 'universe splitter' to a gun that fires in one universe while misfiring in another parallel universe as firing is dependent on the wave state of a quantum particle. If "many worlds" is correct everytime you pulled the trigger you would die instantly in the universe where the wave function caused the gun to fire, so only exist to observe the quantum wave function in the other state. Even though this is seemingly a 50/50 probability when firing the gun at inanimate objects you could fire the gun at your brainstem 1000s or even millions of time getting the same unlikely result over and over again... surviving countless rounds of quantum Russian roulette from your perspective.
What does everyone think of this?

 

[avoid_slow_death]

I have read about this. It is a terrifying notion...at first. However, the point of suicide is to cease to exist in relation to the universe you currently occupy, ergo your existence would be over in the universe you reside in therefore freeing the self you occupy in this current state therefore freeing you. However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

 

[ssaaahmo]

I've never heard of this

 

[autumnal]

Suicide is complicated enough, without bringing quantum physics into the equation!

 

[faust]

Hmm, that is an interesting theory, I like that one. However, I suppose time is the same in all the dimensions. I mean the moment of now, because it goes faster or slower even in our dimension. Plus we cannot simply materialize in a different dimension, we have to go through all biological circles again.

 

[Zozo]

However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

Yeah, but if that were the case like "jumping" to an alternate dimension after offing yourself in your current dimension....hmm you could just keep killing yourself until you end up in a dimension where you don't want to die. Like I finally man up and pull the trigger and wake up in an alternate reality where people dug my shitty band and bought millions of my records and I have enough money to go live deep in the woods do drugs and create art all day every day. wouldn't be so depressed then......ugh sorry I like this theory too much.

 

[Ghostmedic]

I have read about this. It is a terrifying notion...at first. However, the point of suicide is to cease to exist in relation to the universe you currently occupy, ergo your existence would be over in the universe you reside in therefore freeing the self you occupy in this current state therefore freeing you. However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

To summarize, the idea of "quantum immortality" terrifies you? That a good recap? Me too man... me too. I dont want to have to live through the longest of all my possible lives just because it is the only reality left that I exist and capable of experiencing. Seems like prolonged pointless and unnecessary tedium and suffering.

 

[I screwed up]

I guess the biggest challenge ( at least in my case) is pulling the trigger in the first place ... Everything else comes later :(

 

[262653]

Alright. Supposedly, a decade ago there was a turning point in my life when things got really shitty, and now I'm attempting to shot myself. I've offed myself in this world. Why would I get transferred into a world where I became a cripple (from a non-lethal gunfire wound) instead of any world that branched off earlier, for example, before the turning point a decade ago?

I get the feeling that the purpose of this theory is to discourage (scaremongering) ppl from suicide.

 

[InTheAirTonight]

I'd rather CTB than read pseudoscience

 

[KiraLittleOwl]

Yes, I heard about many worlds theory and this particular thought experiment.
There is only one way to verify it lol.

 

[Ghostmedic]

I'd rather CTB than read pseudoscience

Do what you want.

I've never heard of this

Yeah, it's some crazy BarensTAIN bears stuff :P

 

[I’mDone]

I have read about this. It is a terrifying notion...at first. However, the point of suicide is to cease to exist in relation to the universe you currently occupy, ergo your existence would be over in the universe you reside in therefore freeing the self you occupy in this current state therefore freeing you. However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

I guess it would depend on the state of happiness in the other dimension. In a parallel dimension, I'm a well-balanced, popular guy, successful and loved by many. I would swap this existence for that in a heartbeat.

 

[Aap]

I'm just worried that the damn cat is ok in the box.

 

[oopswronglife]

It's a theory based on a theory based on a theory. It's a terrifying idea and people seem to get off on terrifying existential things. I hate them and wish I never came across this idea because even though I know its just an intellectual circlejerk with no basis in any proven science...it scares me because it COULD be true.

 

[mr nobody]

I've actually thought about this and even more so when I survived my attempt. Just to clarify, what you're saying, for example is:
I attempt to CTB, but I survive in my mind (this universe). However, I die in another universe? Is that correct?

 

[esoragoto]

Yeah, I've thought about this plenty of times before, both in relation to my own suicide and outside of it.

Look at it this way, though - if you have unlikely failures enough times to be reasonably certain this theory is true, you can play it to your advantage and rig up some sort of suicide contraption connected to lottery numbers or the stock market or something. Yeah, you don't get to die, but becoming a millionaire is an ok consolation prize, at least.

 

[Steve Vermont]

I have read about this. It is a terrifying notion...at first. However, the point of suicide is to cease to exist in relation to the universe you currently occupy, ergo your existence would be over in the universe you reside in therefore freeing the self you occupy in this current state therefore freeing you. However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

Holy shit, don't get me started. Ever since I read Neil Stephenson's Anathem sci-fi book years ago, this thought has stuck with me. What if consciousness is a multiuniversal manifold and what you think of as "intuition" is really something happening to you in other universes, passed along to you via quantuum leaps?

One scary thing is that this might mean as more and more"yous" die off, your possible universe gets smaller and weirder, more and more surreal and more lonely.

Wanna see this in action? Watch the Netflix series Russian Doll.

I've actually thought about this and even more so when I survived my attempt. Just to clarify, what you're saying, for example is:
I attempt to CTB, but I survive in my mind (this universe). However, I die in another universe? Is that correct?

In a nutshell. But because your consciousness is spread across these universes, if just seems to you like increasingly unlikely coincidences that save you... more and more unliekly until you break the bonds of reality.

The side effect of this is "your" subjective experience — the set of universes in which you live — becomes increasingly unlikely with each passage through the quantuum gate (i.e. each death experience) and thus more and more removed from the universes in which other people love. So every time you kill yourself, you just get farther farther away from the rest of humanity until you are essentially alone in a universe that makes no sense at all. That would be worse than hell, to my mind.

 

[sadworld]

quantum suicide seems reeeaaalllyyy scary and i hope it's not true, otherwise we would be meant to suffer our whole life but i guess i'll find it out soon enough

 

[ghostspace]

my brain just exploded trying to wrap itself around that.

ELI5? I like a side of quantum physics in my suicidal ideation but I'm not especially smart.

 

[Ghostmedic]

I'm just worried that the damn cat is ok in the box.

It's not man.. it's not, so you can stop worrying *sniffle (*smiles to myself as I turn away thinking to myself- "as long as nobody ever checls... EVER, Mr. Kitty will never die, we must all forget about the cat, forever)

I've actually thought about this and even more so when I survived my attempt. Just to clarify, what you're saying, for example is:
I attempt to CTB, but I survive in my mind (this universe). However, I die in another universe? Is that correct?

Yes, exactly, this is the terrifying notion. Especially while I have been considering upon gsw to the head method for ctb; I think I am.more afraid of a failed attempt than the actual ctb, reading discussions about probabilities and best angle/calibur/etc.. seems.like a lot of folks obsess over this as well even though the failure probaboli y with this method is incredibly low, I have actually met one person who attempted shotgun to the head and just blew off his face and needed reconstruction surgery and I met another person in drug rehab that attempted gsw to he heart w/ .357 magnum, not to the head out of consideration for his kom and funeral arrangements was his reasoning when asked... it missed went between aorta and pulm. artery, blew his left lung lower 2 lobes completely to bits, and after some sepsis post trauma surgery he had to get the entire left lung removed. (Just to follow up on the failed gsw to the heart attempt, after we got outof drug rehab he immediately attempted to od on Xanax and oxycodone, but the E.R./ICU admotted him on a ventilator quickly enough to make that a second failed attempt... meanwhile while he was unconscous in ICU jis family made plans for him to go straight from hospitalization directly into another 90 day inpatient drug rehab... I was told after the second 90 day rehab, he attempted gsw again this time to the head, and so suceeded )
But yeah with my.friend from rehab's example he could have easily thought he was stuck in some quantum survival loop, and God forbid he failed at gsw to head in another dimension that his conscioussness has now ported to somehow, mamed and suffering, given narcoticsnim hospitalization destined to withdraw and suffer and land in more 90nday inpatient rehabs to keep his mom from falling completely to pieces. A broken record. An awful, terrible, twilight zone episode of what may be. I certainly feel like I am on my 7th life. Why is this so dang hard? People and even pets die ALL THE TIME when we DON'T want them to...

 

[Endeavour]

I've wondered about whether the universe we experience is unique to us, so for each of us our universe exists and everyone else is a NPC, and that is what creates the many worlds / universes.

In that scenario then if you ctb your universe would collapse, and so to prevent it's own destruction every time you try to ctb you will fail.

Other people in your universe can ctb and die, since they are NPC in your universe, but in their own universe every time they try to ctb they fail. But in their universe you may well succeed in ctb.

It's like the thing where you can remember a celebrity dying, you can remember it clearly, or the name of a game show or tv show, then some time later you realise that the celebrity you remember dying is actually alive after all, or the tv show now has a different name.

That's put down to faulty memory, but maybe it's the rules of your universe, or it's interaction with some other universe changing the rules and realities in your universe.

So you might go to bed tonight and wake up dead tomorrow, only to find that a week later you wake up alive again. LoL.

There's a horror story for you. You might have to live forever, the same thing over and over again just so your universe can keep itself alive. Maybe that is what Hell is.

 

[WornOutLife]

I really believe in parallel universes! Everything is so weird. I think both this universe and those ones are just simulations and we'll only find out the truth once we log out from this "game". (die)

 

[wanttogetonthebus]

I have read about this. It is a terrifying notion...at first. However, the point of suicide is to cease to exist in relation to the universe you currently occupy, ergo your existence would be over in the universe you reside in therefore freeing the self you occupy in this current state therefore freeing you. However.....what if death is merely a transition into an "alternate" dimension where you DON'T die because the quantum outcome is different in that one. That is far scarier to me.

This possibility terrifies me too. I think it's unlikely but in the end, we can only make educated guesses on what death will mean for us until we go through it ourselves. If quantum suicide turns out to be the case or what you said about a portal into an alternate dimension, I'm so freaking screwed. There's not much else that can be said…