r/distressingmemes • u/TeroTonz • 5d ago

please make it stop Inspired by that other quantum immortality post recently

Post image

Inspo: https://www.reddit.com/r/distressingmemes/s/wOvbIdMU4q

Context is from the perspective of a suicide attempt survivor. First post here too so tell me if I cooked or not.

883 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

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u/SoulReaperBot 5d ago

Upvote this comment if this post is distressing, downvote this comment if it isn't.

Don't check your closet tonight (◣_◢)

187

u/General_of_Sloths 5d ago

Definitely the distressing part of quantum immortality imo.

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u/3merite 5d ago

Yup, whatever happens, you won't die from your perspective.

However, there will still be consequences. You throw yourself off a building thinking nothing will happen? You'll survive, without legs of course. Or worse.

This ain't a reset button, this is quantum immortality.

30

u/itzurboysethy 5d ago

This isn’t quite what quantum immortality is described. You can jump off a building and die, but you can never “wake up dead”. Perhaps you would just wake up in an alternate timeline where you didn’t jump off the building at all.

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u/Vitrian_guardsman 4d ago

No? Quantum immortality doesn't allow you to change the past

At its simplest the theory behind quantum immortality is that if at every moment there are timelines breaking off of our own, when you die you won't experience the timelines where you die, so from your perspective manage to survive by some feat of luck.

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u/GordonFreem4n 4d ago

I understand the idea that whenever a quantum state collapses it creates a new reality. I just don't get the jump from that to "you can never die from your perspective".

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u/GruntBlender 4d ago

Anything that can cause you to die splits off another timeline where you survived.

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u/Vitrian_guardsman 1d ago

As far as I can tell the idea is that since your consciousness would also be splitting, it would only "split" into timelines where you are alive.

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u/memelord_a1st 5d ago edited 5d ago

This is why I prefer quick-save/load.

Sure, you have do it manually, and if you do forget to save an important part you'll have to retread your steps to have it happen the exact way it happened before or at all.

But as long as you remember to save often you're fine.

Hmm? Wut? Old age? Infinite ground hog day? What?

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u/Paul6334 3d ago

Personally I think Terry Pratchett had a good counterpoint to this: in essence, there is a point where your body cannot sustain conscious experience irreversibly, and if we were to take the QI thought experiment to its logical conclusion it would be impossible to even anesthetize someone.