So, there’s this fantastic Wikipedia list
called Wikipedia:Unusual Articles. It’s filled with unusual, unexpected, and
unbelievable subjects. Every other week I click on a new link, and
teach you a little bit more about our amazing world. Do you want to live forever? Well, if Wolverine or Deadpool taught you
anything, you don’t, but there is a theory on how you can. It’s gonna need a bit of explanation so
if you’re like this guy and don’t enjoy long-winded answers, I suggest you turn off
the video now. Quantum Mechanics. They’re complicated. What we’re going to talk about today is
only a theory because it’s practically impossible to test. One of the bases of quantum mechanics is Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle. Heisenberg says that, in quantum mechanics,
“the more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in
this instant, and vice versa.” Let me explain. Imagine you’re a blind man. In order to tell how far away an object is,
you’ve developed a system in which you throw a tennis ball at the object, let say it’s
a larger medicine ball. If your tennis ball bounces back in a short
amount of time, you know that the medicine ball is close, if it bounces back in a longer
amount of time, the medicine ball is farther. The problem is, however, that through observing
where the medicine ball is, you’ve moved it and it’s therefore no longer in the position
in which you observed it. In the subatomic world, it’s essentially
impossible to observe an object without affecting it, so all quantum theories must be based
on and proven by thought experiments. Alright, that was my best attempt at summarizing
a concept that you can study for years in 30 seconds. If you want to learn more, you can click here
for a Veritasium video about the subject. The first theory in our long-winded explanation
is the Many-Worlds theory. Let’s say you’re standing on top of a
cliff. You’re making the decision on whether or
not to jump. According to the many-worlds theory, at the
very moment that your decision is made, the universe splits into two—one copy being
the timeline in which you jump off the cliff, the other being the one where you walk away. Of course, the you that jumped off the cliff
doesn’t know that the universe split into two and in your reality, life just continues
on as normal while simultaneously in a different universe, a copy of you continues his life
following his decision to not jump from the cliff. The many worlds theory says that every single
time a decision is made by anyone or anything, the universe splits and and your self inhabits
only one of nearly infinite different universes. Now to quantum suicide. In this thought experiment, you, the experimenter,
are standing in a box with a nuclear bomb that, if exploded, will immediately and unconditionally
kill you. Hooked up to the bomb is a trigger that measures
the spin value of a proton every three seconds. If the proton spins one way, there’s just
a click sound, the other way, the bomb explodes. Statistically, the proton should have a 50%
of spinning one way or another so the chance of the bomb going off or not is truly random. Three, two, one, (click), three, two, one,
(click), three, two, one, (click). At this point, there’s only a 12.5% that
the bomb not going off was random, we’ll keep going, three, two, one, (click), three,
two, one, (click). If we fast forward 300 seconds, after the
proton has been measured 100 times, there’s only a eight hundred-octillionth of a percent
(0.00000000000000000000000000008%) chance that your survival is random. We can now conclude beyond a reasonable doubt
that you are immortal. What happened is that every time the proton
was measured, every time the bomb could have gone off, the universe split into two, one
being the scenario in which you die, the other being the one in which you live. But why didn’t you go to the universe where
the bomb went off, why didn’t you go to the one where you died? Well it’s quite simple. The version of you who died cannot know that
he died, only the version of you who lived can know that you lived. The next time the bomb went off, the same
situation occurred. Only the living version of you continues on
in consciousness. On and on this will continue, forever, because
the version of you who lives can continue to realize he is living. You can’t die because only your living self
will keep consciousness and existence. This, of course, brings up a lot of existential
questions. Will the version of yourself who lives be
the same person? Are the people around you in the new universe
the same people? Shouldn’t everyone be immortal from any
sort of death in some universe? What does it mean to be a person if there
are so many versions of you? There are certainly flaws to this theory and
there are certainly unanswerable questions. Should you go off and try quantum suicide
in order to prove your own immortality? Well, I’d suggest not. This whole theory is based on the many-worlds
interpretation of quantum mechanics which is only the second or third most popular interpretation. The Copenhagen theory, which you know from
Schrödinger's cat, is the leading interpretation of quantum mechanics and would lead to you
being properly, and unconditionally dead. Thank you for watching. Make sure to click subscribe here if you enjoyed
this video. You can check out my video from last week
on what makes flying so expensive here. Please also follow me on twitter @WendoverPro. A link is in the description.
didn't Schrodinger put forward the cat thought experiment to showcase the inherent problems of looking at stuff that happens at the quantum level and comparing it with, er, stuff that happens to bigger stuff?
following that logic saying that each time I 'decide' whether to jump of a cliff or not a parallel universe is created just seems.. weird. what the hell is a 'decision' at the quantum level? if everything that exists at that level creates a parallel universe every single moment, speaking about 'suicide' is meaningless because 'life' is meaningless at that level.
or something.
Anyhow it looks like he has some fun videos at his channel, thanks
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is NOT distortion caused by measurement. It's a fundamental property of a wave function.
Source
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Another Tuesday another Wendover Productions video! This is my video, and if you liked it make sure to subscribe to my channel and feel free to leave any comments/criticisms down below.
Wouldn't the decision to enter the randomized bomb room in the first place cause another quantum split, making all room outcomes moot?
One of the shorts in Alan Wake mentioned this. Pretty cool!
That summary on quantum mechanics was really good for 30 seconds.
What I don't understand is the following: I do get that the splitting is possible, but why would you be immortal? Just like jumping of the cliff, this could mean that the current you actually is in the room where the bomb explodes, and you die. In another universe, that is not essentially you, because you are dead, you are still in the box, and so on. So every press of the button there are two 'yous', so why would your concioussness be transfered to one or the other ?
Interesting theory. This assumes that there is true "random". Are there "decisions" in life at all? We are only programs acting in our environments, would we ever really make a decision to jump or not.
Yes or no, it doesn't really matter, the course of action is still the same. If you want to believe you're immortal, so be it. We're all immortal in the sense that our experience of living will never end, because when it does, we won't know it. But, I'm still looking both ways when I cross the road.
Ok, this is nice in theory, but how do I get to stay in the universe where I never blow up? Because in practice every three seconds there will be a 50% chance that I will die.
I get it, every three seconds the world splits into two. In one I experience a continuous reality where I get to live, and the other I experience a continuous reality where I die. However, the me that existed before only gets to experience one of these outcomes and in 50% of them it will be the one in which I die.
Also, what about conservation of energy? Where does the energy come from to instantaneously create an entire universe full of matter that does not interact with our own universe as far as we can tell.
I think the many worlds interpretation is really interesting, but if it is to be taken seriously there are some serious philosophical dilemmas that need to be addressed. Consider for example that no matter how we build the experiment the proton is still interacting with the rest of the universe and can not truly exhibit quantum behaviour independent of those interactions.