Hello!
I first heard about LW through a SomethingAwful thread. Not the most auspicious of introductions, but when I read some of your material on my own instead of receiving it through the sneerfilter, I found myself interested. Futurology and cognitive biases are two topics that are near and dear to my heart, and I hope to pick up some new ideas and perhaps even new ways of thinking here. I’ve also had some thoughts about Friendly AI which I haven’t seen discussed yet, and I’m excited to see what holes you guys can poke in my theories!
I believe the argument goes that they, too, are immortal… from their own perspective. Your consciousness traces its worldline, taking branches where you stay alive, and theirs does the same, but picking worlds where they stay alive. In other words, you can see them die, and they can see you die, but the consciousness, the qualia of the person who’s supposedly dying is not there; it’s gone down a different worldline.
I think that the theory is cute and quite seductive, but quite clearly wrong. The problem is, for example, brain damage: does quantum immortality allow you to experience Phineas Gage-type brain damage, or doesn’t it?
Also, I’ve been blackout drunk in college, and if quantum immortality is a thing, it’s not clear why my consciousness didn’t trace a path through the universes where I wasn’t blackout drunk. It was, after all, a loss of self, even if it was only temporary. The arguments QI uses for keeping you alive could be used equally easily to prove that you cannot become blackout drunk.