If the many worlds of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics are real, there's at least a good chance that Quantum Immortality is real as well: All conscious beings should expect to experience the next moment in at least one Everett branch even if they stop existing in all other branches, and the moment after that in at least one other branch, and so on forever.
However, the transition from life to death isn't usually a binary change. For most people it happens slowly as your brain and the rest of your body deteriorates, often painfully.
Doesn't it follow that each of us should expect to keep living in this state of constant degradation and suffering for a very, very long time, perhaps forever?
I don't know much about quantum mechanics, so I don't have anything to contribute to this discussion. I'm just terrified, and I'd like, not to be reassured by well-meaning lies, but to know the truth. How likely is it that Quantum Torment is real?
As I alluded to in my ETA above, the whole point of quantum immortality is that we'll end up in a really unlikely branch because we won't exist in all the other branches.
Are you asking why, once I'm in a state of almost-being-dead, it's likely that the branch I'll be in at the next moment will be one in which I'm still almost-dead, rather than healthy? It's because even if MWI is true, the next moment is caused by the current moment. If my body is deteriorating now and nothing happens to change that, it will be deteriorating in a moment too.
Or are you asking why it's more likely I'll end up in a state of almost-being-dead than not in the first place? I've answered that one above.
Hm, I think my confusion is over the idea of quantum immortality in general rather than specific to the torment scenario.
If I understand it correctly, QI says that at some point in time there will exist a single branch containing a "me" that, against all odds, never dies. The idea of quantum torture comes from noting that continuing to exist in a state of right-about-to-die would likely be extremely unpleasant.
So, what makes this single branch so important? Why is the me in that branch more "me" than a me any given branch that exists wi... (read more)