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JoshuaZ comments on Help: Is there a quick and dirty way to explain quantum immortality? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Here's my explanation of quantum immortality:
Say you want to do something humans regard as important, like factoring large numbers. Lock yourself in a chamber that draws on a source of true quantum randomness to guess factors. Set it to kill you whenever it guesses incorrectly.
A short moment later, you will be alive, and have the correct factorization. This is because the only being you will identify with will be the being that decohered into the wavefunction branch that guessed correctly.
Seriously, this is the best way for humans to factor integers and solve other computationally-difficult problems. Give it a try.
I'm curious, is your goal to maximizes the number of paper clips in a single part of the wavefunction or maximize the number across the entire wavefunction? If the first, you should use this strategy also.
My goals imply that I should maximize the second, of course.
Why is that an "of course"?
Because it's obvious. Why is it obvious? Because I want to maximize the number of paperclips really existing in the universe, not the ones I directly observe existing -- so I can't just care about the paperclips in the branch that I will eventually experience decohering to.
Isn't it obivious?