Many-worlds interpretations can not imply 'quantum immortality'

Abstract

The fallacy that the many worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics implies certain survival in quantum-Russian-roulette-like situations (the ‘Quantum Suicide’ (QS) thought experiment) has become common enough that it is now necessary to publicly debunk this belief despite the risk of further publicizing it. ‘Quantum Immortality’ (QI) is an extension of the QS Fallacy (QSF) with some additional unlikely assumptions. The QS/QI ideas are examined here and shown to be false.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,779

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

My notes

Similar books and articles

Forever and Again: Necessary Conditions for “Quantum Immortality” and its Practical Implications.Alexey Turchin - 2018 - Journal of Evolution and Technology 28 (1).
Nonrelativistic Quantum Mechanics with Fundamental Environment.Ashot S. Gevorkyan - 2011 - Foundations of Physics 41 (3):509-515.
An Introduction to Many Worlds in Quantum Computation.Clare Hewitt-Horsman - 2009 - Foundations of Physics 39 (8):869-902.
Can Many-Worlds Survive a Quantum Doomsday.Brett Bevers - unknown
Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality.Simon Saunders, Jonathan Barrett, Adrian Kent & David Wallace (eds.) - 2010 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.Lev Vaidman - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
How the Many Worlds Interpretation brings Common Sense to Paradoxical Quantum Experiments.Kelvin J. McQueen & Lev Vaidman - 2020 - In Rik Peels, Jeroen de Ridder & René van Woudenberg (eds.), Scientific Challenges to Common Sense Philosophy. New York: Routledge. pp. 40-60.
Should we fear quantum torment?István Aranyosi - 2012 - Ratio 25 (3):249-259.
Not Just Many Worlds but Many Universes? A Problem for the Many Worlds View of Quantum Mechanics.Peter Baumann - 2022 - Metaphysica 23 (2):295-305.
Why the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics needs more than Hilbert space structure.Meir Hemmo & Orly Shenker - 2020 - In Rik Peels, Jeroen de Ridder & René van Woudenberg (eds.), Scientific Challenges to Common Sense Philosophy. New York: Routledge. pp. 61-70.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-02-07

Downloads
172 (#113,461)

6 months
14 (#254,536)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jacques Mallah
New York University (PhD)

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Understanding Deutsch's probability in a deterministic universe.Hilary Greaves - 2004 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (3):423-456.

Add more references