The Many Worlds Theory in Suicide

I thought of sharing with you a controversial and disturbing scientific philosophy today but before that as a disclaimer, I do not in any way condone anyone to take their own lives and that this philosophy is UNPROVEN and can never be proven. 

Contradictory to popular beliefs, science is not always rooted in solid facts. In reality, many of what scientists claim as irrefutable knowledge are based on theories. These theories are in turn supported by experiments. Although a theory may be supported by experiments, it does not mean that it is completely true. For example, the model of an atom have constantly changed over the years, each time supported by different theories. J. J. Thomson's Plum Pudding Model (1904) was supported by experiments which showed that atoms were made up of two charges, negative and positive. This was later refuted by Ernest Rutherford who proposed a new theory on the model of an atom after his famous Geiger-Marsden Experiments (1910) proved the presence of a central positive nucleus. A new model was later proposed by Niel Bohr (1913), which laid the foundation of Quantum Mechanics. The point is, what may be 'scientific fact' now may not be the same 20 or 30 years down the road and theories are in itself, theories. The only way we can firmly say that a scientific theory is right, is to experience it ourselves, that is to say, to prove the theory of the model of an atom for example, we would have to actually see an atom with our own eyes which is impossible.

You can say that science is in some way kind of like a religion. Take the theory of evolution for example. The only way you can prove it, is to actually see the change of any species over the course of millions of years. No living person can do that, so therefore, it will remain as a theory. Henceforth today, we will be learning about one such theory. Quantum Suicide. 

Imagine this, if you planned to commit suicide by letting fate decide whether or not you die (50% chance of living and 50% chance of dying), the theory of Quantum Suicide says that you will never die. You will always survive. WHY? You will ask. Isn't the odds 50%? Wouldn't you have the same probability of dying? Yes, your probability of living and dying is the same but you will always live. To understand why, read on.

I'm sure you may have heard of the Schrodinger's cat. If you put a cat in a box with a vial of poison in it and then closed the box, you wouldn't know if the cat ate the poison and died or avoided the poison and lived. You will only know if the cat ate the poison if you were to open the box afterwards. Quantum Superposition suggests that if you don't open the box, the cat is neither alive or dead. We would therefore describe the cat in the box as being in the superposed state of the two. Many of our modern day technology such as Quantum Computing makes use of Quantum Superposition. 

(Interesting note: Einstein was against the idea of Quantum because he believed that "God doesn't play dice")

Now that we have established probability, we will now discuss the philosophical aspect of it. Let's say the probability of you getting hit by a bus at precisely 3pm tomorrow is 50%. According to the Many Worlds Theory, this is where the universe splits. In one world, you are hit by a bus while in another, you escaped. Therefore, just before you got hit by the bus, you are living in a state of superposition. Either you get hit by the bus or you do not. Just like the moment just before you open the box to find if the cat was dead or alive. This means that there is in fact an infinite number of worlds where every outcome is possible. There is a world in which you are born a millionaire, a world where you were never born, a world where you never read this article. Hence, the term "Many Worlds Theory" or Multiverse. 

Let's put the Multiverse into a theoretical situation. Say that you load a gun and put it to your head. Then, you let a computer program that have a 50% chance of pulling that trigger decide if you will live or die. In 50% of the infinite number of worlds, you actually died. However, YOU WON'T KNOW THEY DIED, you only know that you're alive. Run the program again. Once again, you're alive because the other 50% versions of yourself died. Do it again. And again. And again. And again. Repeat it 100 times. By now, the probability chance of you actually living is less than 0.00000000001%. What if I pulled the trigger and died? Well, you won't know you see, because... you died. The only one that knows the outcome is the conscious, living version of yourself WHICH IS YOU. Therefore, you will never die. This theory proves that you are in fact, immortal. 

After all that Quantum Suicide experiments, now you wish to tell the world that you are immortal.  The problem is, the Many World Theory is true only for you. If someone else tried the experiment after you, then the person would have a 50% chance of living from your perspective. You may be immortal but in that world of yours, the guy isn't. So in reality, only you, the person who conducted the Quantum Suicide Experiment would know that the theory is right. Which is why, this theory have never been proven and will never be proven. The only way to prove this theory however, is if every single human being in this world were to undergo the exact same experiment together. Mass Suicide which would be a very sick but amusing movie plot.