Sounds like a crazy suggestion, but it could be true with a little help from some physics.
Basically if the many-worlds interpretation of the universe is true then we could live forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
Effectively this says that there are lots of different parallel universes, where all different possibilities happen.
According to quantum mechanics every particle in the universe behaves non-deterministically, that is we can't tell what will happen to it from previous observation.
It's perfectly possible, though unlikely, for a particle to suddenly appear on the other side of the universe. It's far more likely to keep on moving in the same dierction it previously was though. The important point to get from this is that it's all down to probability.
Now, simply put the many worlds interpretation says that at each moment in time some universes will have the particle suddenly jump in space, but most will have it carry on as before. The number of universes with the particle in various configurations is determined by the probabilities in quantum mechanics.
What does this have to do with living forever I hear you say?
Well, quite a lot as it turns out.
From the above you've probably realised that there a bloody large number of universes in existence if this is true.
Now only a certain subset of these will have ever had your birth in them. These universes are going to be the ones I am concerned with from now on.
As all possibilities can happen within these universes there will be some where you are dead already. Possibly in one of the universes all the molecules in your brain suddenly appeared 1 metre to your left and you died. Incredibly unlikely to happen, but it will have happened in at least one of the universes. More likely is that in some of the universes you died by normal methods that other people die of as these are massively more likely to occur.
So, why aren't you dead then?
Well if you were dead then you wouldn't be around today to see this thread.
It could be that out of all the universes where you existed at all you're now dead in 10% of them.
As time goes on you're likely to be dead in a larger and larger percentage of all the universes that you existed in at all, but the crucial point is that because of the fact that all possibilities happen there will be some universes where you will still be alive.
Even if you attempt to commit suicide there is a finite chance that you will somehow fail. The universes in which you are alive to think about this after the event are the ones where the suicide attempt failed.
You are always necessarily alive in the universes where you can think about it.
Why don't we see lots of 200 year old people around then?
Well, as I said earlier the proportion of the universes you are alive in decreases the older you get, at 200 years it could be that you are only alive in a miniscule fraction of the universes.
Because there are a finite number of people in the world the chances of one of these universes being the one you're currently experiencing is incredibly small.
Hopefully this explains that other people can still die from your perspective. They are still alive in some other universe just not the one you're currently experiencing.
Hopefully I haven't bored too many people with this, I was just thinking about it the other day and found it interesting.
Predictably Wikipedia has a page on this concept too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_immortality
Basically if the many-worlds interpretation of the universe is true then we could live forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
Effectively this says that there are lots of different parallel universes, where all different possibilities happen.
According to quantum mechanics every particle in the universe behaves non-deterministically, that is we can't tell what will happen to it from previous observation.
It's perfectly possible, though unlikely, for a particle to suddenly appear on the other side of the universe. It's far more likely to keep on moving in the same dierction it previously was though. The important point to get from this is that it's all down to probability.
Now, simply put the many worlds interpretation says that at each moment in time some universes will have the particle suddenly jump in space, but most will have it carry on as before. The number of universes with the particle in various configurations is determined by the probabilities in quantum mechanics.
What does this have to do with living forever I hear you say?
Well, quite a lot as it turns out.
From the above you've probably realised that there a bloody large number of universes in existence if this is true.
Now only a certain subset of these will have ever had your birth in them. These universes are going to be the ones I am concerned with from now on.
As all possibilities can happen within these universes there will be some where you are dead already. Possibly in one of the universes all the molecules in your brain suddenly appeared 1 metre to your left and you died. Incredibly unlikely to happen, but it will have happened in at least one of the universes. More likely is that in some of the universes you died by normal methods that other people die of as these are massively more likely to occur.
So, why aren't you dead then?
Well if you were dead then you wouldn't be around today to see this thread.
It could be that out of all the universes where you existed at all you're now dead in 10% of them.
As time goes on you're likely to be dead in a larger and larger percentage of all the universes that you existed in at all, but the crucial point is that because of the fact that all possibilities happen there will be some universes where you will still be alive.
Even if you attempt to commit suicide there is a finite chance that you will somehow fail. The universes in which you are alive to think about this after the event are the ones where the suicide attempt failed.
You are always necessarily alive in the universes where you can think about it.
Why don't we see lots of 200 year old people around then?
Well, as I said earlier the proportion of the universes you are alive in decreases the older you get, at 200 years it could be that you are only alive in a miniscule fraction of the universes.
Because there are a finite number of people in the world the chances of one of these universes being the one you're currently experiencing is incredibly small.
Hopefully this explains that other people can still die from your perspective. They are still alive in some other universe just not the one you're currently experiencing.
Hopefully I haven't bored too many people with this, I was just thinking about it the other day and found it interesting.
Predictably Wikipedia has a page on this concept too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_immortality
