You live in an unending hell, and the only way to escape is by calling your nearest quantum physics lab.
This is a totally half-baked notion based on a layman reading of quantum mechanics, but it’s fun to bring up anyway. We talked about it a bit at yesterday’s meetup.
Anyway, according to this theory, you might be stuck in a literally infinite hell, and you have to call your nearest quantum physics lab ASAP in order to escape. The reason is this: Given the 99.9999...% chance that you are not alive at any given point in the universe’s (or multiverse’s) timeline...it’s extremely unlikely that you would be alive right now, let alone that you would ever have existed in the first place. One way to explain this is to say that the infinite number of universes being generated (either through multiverse bubbles or what-have-you), INEVITABLY and CONTINUALLY create you. With perhaps quintillions of years in-between each creation...thus it’s trivial to explain why you happen to be alive and conscious right now. You always are, from your perspective. When you die, you are non-existent for the quintillion kajillion years, and the moment your particular universe reoccurs, bang, you pop up again in your crib, which from your perspective is instantaneous. You have no memory of course of any of this, but it means you live an infinite number of times.
Now here’s the kicker. IF by some unfortunate chance, something happens to you and you are killed or end up spending the rest of your life in pain, IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU AN INFINITE NUMBER OF TIMES. In every life. BUT, if the macro world is deterministic and quantum physics isn’t, you can escape this by calling your nearest quantum physics lab, getting a non-deterministic bit of information from them (“would you mind checking if a certain particle decayed in the last minute?”), and using their to dictate an action that changes the course of your day and your life. Even something as simple as deciding which route to take to work.
This way, you break the deterministic pattern of your life, including a potential infinitely recurring disaster, and can live multiple versions of your life.
That is all and I hope this nonsense is at least a bit fun or interesting. Nice to meet all of you.
-Ernie
Hi, this is P. from New Jersey, right? (don’t want to give away your personal info if you don’t wish). I spoke to someone at the MeetUp yesterday who brought up this exact issue.
-Ernie