^{first published in Ate Mais: Until More (2024)}

There is a concept in quantum mechanics called quantum immortality
          It goes like this:

Take Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment
          A cat in a box, etc.
To the scientist’s point of view, the cat could be:
                    a) both alive and dead
                              This is “Quantum superimposition” in the Copenhagen Interpretation
                              Which, people tend to forget, Schrödinger was arguing against
Or:
                    b) alive in one universe and not alive in another
                              Or, to be more clear, alive to one observer’s universe and 
                              not alive in another observer’s universe
                    This is the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI)

But both of these ignore an important and often overlooked point of view:

                    The cat’s




What does the universe look like from the point of view of a cat?

                    A cat in a box

For one thing, the cat is either alive or not alive
But if the cat is not alive then it can’t observe itself not being alive

                    Which is to say, to take seriously the point of view of the cat is to 
                    presuppose its existence
			          and therefore its survival





                                        The cat hops out of its box unharmed
                                        It stretches and mewls for food
                                        Outside there are birds or not





                    This remains true even though there are (many) worlds where, to other observers, 
                    the cat is dead

In other words:

          to the point of view of the cat
                    the cat can’t have died 
                              otherwise it wouldn’t have a point of view

This is quantum immortality





Quantum immortality says that you (you reading this) by the fact of you reading this are living in the 
          timeline where you have not yet died

                    Think of all the worlds without you

                              Worlds where gamma rays sterilized the globe
                              Where meteors struck, volcanoes churned

                                        Where vacuum decay (look it up)

                              There are worlds in nuclear winter
                              Where empire and genocide
                              Worlds in pandemic (this one, for example)

                                                  There are also worlds without pandemic
                                                  Where Arawak and Carib murdered white men by the boatful

                                                                      Where Europe sank out of memory
                                                                      And all our statues have broad noses

                    There are also worlds where you slipped and fell

                              Think of those moments by rights you shouldn’t have walked away from
                              You didn’t 

                                                  Your loved ones are mourning you
                                                  Right now they hold and hug each other without you
                                                  Right now they tell stories of your life

                                                  Listen





There are those reading these words who have already died

                    There are worlds where I have already died 
                              maybe in your world, hello




 
The opposite and corollary of quantum immortality is survivorship bias

                    This is when we observe only one type of outcome so believe this outcome is 
                    easy or inevitable

                    For example, think of the improbably close flirtations with nuclear apocalypse 
                    in the last 70 years

                    How many times some small and strange thing happened to avert the end of humanity





The fact that we’ve survived biased us to think we were meant to have survived

                    Maybe we were not meant to have survived
                    Maybe sometimes we did not survive
                    Maybe even most times





The veil over the knowledge of our own non-existence is called the anthropic shadow

                              This is the land where we cannot have been
                              The country that murdered your ancestors
                              The black hole in the heart

                              This is the burned and wasted rock that stands where you stand
                              It does not have your name it has no names

There is a way to live in the possibility of both quantum immortality and the anthropic shadow

                    Where the narrow shaft of light is the shape of your living
                    And you dwell and love the shape of your living
                    And while your life is living you can’t have died

                                        Where you, me, the cat 
                                        Live, blissful, extreme, safe, aware 
                                        Cosmic milk in a saucer 
                                        Warm arms      warm fur 




As the odds of our survival get smaller our existence becomes more and more improbable





The man who came up with the concept of quantum immortality is dead

                    Hugh Everett III died of a heart attack at the age of 51
                    After a lifetime of binge eating, heavy drinking, and smoking three packs a day

                    He asked that his ashes be thrown in the trash

                              His daughter died by suicide.
                              His son started the band Eels





In Hugh Everett III’s original formulation, the scientist would climb into the box instead of the cat. 
                    He would set the murder device to some infinitesimally small chance of survival

                              He would hit the switch.
                              A million versions of Hugh Everett III would die.

                                        One would emerge.
                                        Hugh Everett III1,000,000 will have proven quantum immortality





Quantum immortality is also known as quantum suicide






There is a theory that the last century of human existence has been so strange because we are living 
          in one of the few timelines where humanity hasn’t yet destroyed itself


                    Every year our lives are more improbable
                    As every year our survival is more improbable






This is depressing
It’s also liberating






There’s a world where we survive
This one