• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Would you be willing to commit Quantum Suicide?

Dissipate

Dissipate

Diamond Member
Quantum suicide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Quantum suicide is a thought experiment which has been independently proposed in 1987 by Hans Moravec, in 1988 by Bruno Marchal and in 1998 by Max Tegmark that attempts to distinguish between the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Everett many-worlds interpretation by means of a variation of the Schrödinger's cat experiment. The experiment essentially involves looking at the Schrödinger's cat experiment from the point of view of the cat.

In this experiment, a physicist sits in front of a gun which is triggered or not triggered by radioactive decay. With each run of the experiment there is a 50-50 chance that the gun will be triggered and the physicist will die. If the Copenhagen interpretation is correct, then the gun will eventually be triggered and the physicist will die. If the many-worlds interpretation is correct then at each run of the experiment the physicist will be split into a world in which he lives and one in which he dies. In the worlds where the physicist dies, he will cease to exist. However, from the point of view of the physicist, the experiment will continue running without his ceasing to exist, because at each branch, he will only be able to observe the result in the world in which he survives, and if many-worlds is correct, the physicist will notice that he never seems to die.

Unfortunately, the physicist will be unable to report the results because, from the viewpoint of an outside observer, the probabilities will be the same whether many worlds or Copenhagen is correct.

A variation of this thought experiment suggests a controversial outcome known as quantum immortality, which is the argument that if the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct then a conscious observer never can cease to exist.
Click to expand...

I don't see why it has to be a physicist who tries it out. Are there any volunteers here?

This could be fun
 
Originally posted by: fivespeed5
so is this thought experiment out to disprove the many-worlds theory
interesting..
Click to expand...

No, just to test which theory is correct. Of course only the person in the experiment would find out, everyone else watching would just see a guy either live or die.
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
get some people in ATOT to try it
Click to expand...

In particular a member named after a character in a very, very popular George Lucas trilogy who never ever learns from his YAGT posts.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top