L. Ron Quantum
I
once had an idea to start a religion based on the vulgar many-worlds
interpretation of quantum physics. The idea is that the universe is
continuously branching to a parallel branches that differ by whether
some event took place or not. An astronomical number of new branches
therefore gets created every moment, and these branches represent all
possible histories from the starting point of the universe. Therefore,
for example, every reader of this posting currently exists in
astronomically many universes in slightly different versions. Of
course, there is an ever larger number of branches where none of us was
never born, since even the Earth itself didn't form.
In many branches where I have previously existed, its version of me has already died. For example, in one branch I might have been hit by a car when I was five. In another branch, I slipped on ice on the pavement when I was twelve and cracked my skull. And so on, for all the possible ways things could have happened starting from the initial conditions of the universe. But the grand idea of my religion is that the consciousness of each individual person really exists in only one branch, and this branch would be such that that person never dies but lives physically forever!
When the universe branches to different futures, the consciousness of each person moves to the branch where that particular person lives forever, and not to any of the possible branches where he eventually dies no matter which possible continuation of that branch is taken. Every person's body will die zillions of times in many other branches, but from his own point of view, he just keeps staying alive, somehow magically avoiding or surviving all illnesses and accidents and everything else that could take his life. Since everyone else seems to die eventually, the consciousnesses of two different people would spend only a finite time following the same branch, and would then proceed to two different futures.
Of course, the heat death of the universe presents a problem for this religion, and I have not thought out the other possible implications properly. For starters, it would follow that some people (but as far as I can see, not necessarily even the most of them) in the world would have to be philosophical zombies. The constant flow of new people affect wouldn't seem to be a logical problem for this system. Even though the "same" people would be born in many different branches, each with a consciousness, the branches never come together in the future and no logical problems emerge. The seeming lack of people who are millions of years old is not a problem either, since the consciousness of all such people may have previously moved to other branches than the one that I currently inhabit.In this branch, their bodies have already died or will eventually die, no matter which future branch is followed.
To turn this idea into a religion, perhaps I need to add some mechanism in which proper tithing to the Quantum Church guarantees that your consciousness will keep following the branch where it lives infinitely long. Unless you pay up and perform certain rituals daily, eventually your consciousness will move into a branch where it will die in all the possible future branches, no matter what. You might get lucky for a hundred years or so, but eventually each branch would come to an end for you. The people in each branch will continue living their lives, of course: some of them might even be there "for real", since that branch would be their lucky one. Assuming that they have tithed, of course.
In many branches where I have previously existed, its version of me has already died. For example, in one branch I might have been hit by a car when I was five. In another branch, I slipped on ice on the pavement when I was twelve and cracked my skull. And so on, for all the possible ways things could have happened starting from the initial conditions of the universe. But the grand idea of my religion is that the consciousness of each individual person really exists in only one branch, and this branch would be such that that person never dies but lives physically forever!
When the universe branches to different futures, the consciousness of each person moves to the branch where that particular person lives forever, and not to any of the possible branches where he eventually dies no matter which possible continuation of that branch is taken. Every person's body will die zillions of times in many other branches, but from his own point of view, he just keeps staying alive, somehow magically avoiding or surviving all illnesses and accidents and everything else that could take his life. Since everyone else seems to die eventually, the consciousnesses of two different people would spend only a finite time following the same branch, and would then proceed to two different futures.
Of course, the heat death of the universe presents a problem for this religion, and I have not thought out the other possible implications properly. For starters, it would follow that some people (but as far as I can see, not necessarily even the most of them) in the world would have to be philosophical zombies. The constant flow of new people affect wouldn't seem to be a logical problem for this system. Even though the "same" people would be born in many different branches, each with a consciousness, the branches never come together in the future and no logical problems emerge. The seeming lack of people who are millions of years old is not a problem either, since the consciousness of all such people may have previously moved to other branches than the one that I currently inhabit.In this branch, their bodies have already died or will eventually die, no matter which future branch is followed.
To turn this idea into a religion, perhaps I need to add some mechanism in which proper tithing to the Quantum Church guarantees that your consciousness will keep following the branch where it lives infinitely long. Unless you pay up and perform certain rituals daily, eventually your consciousness will move into a branch where it will die in all the possible future branches, no matter what. You might get lucky for a hundred years or so, but eventually each branch would come to an end for you. The people in each branch will continue living their lives, of course: some of them might even be there "for real", since that branch would be their lucky one. Assuming that they have tithed, of course.
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