Heaven, hell, and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

[loinburger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is that there are an infinite number of parallel universes in which all possibilities are enacted, for example if you put a cat in a box that will fill with poison gas if a particle decays then this will split into one parallel universe where the particle decays and the cat dies and another parallel universe where the particle doesn't decay and the cat lives. This also means that there are parallel universes where you're a good god-fearing person (non-bearded Spock) who ought to go to heaven and parallel universes where you're a colossal ******* (bearded Spock) who ought to go to hell. How do these many versions of you get resolved in the afterlife?

Clarification on poll options: option 1 means that each universe gets its own heaven/hell, option 2 means that there's only one heaven/hell and so there are going to be multiple versions of you in heaven/hell

If you can't find an appropriate poll option (e.g. maybe you believe in reincarnation instead of heaven/hell, or maybe you reject the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics) then just pick a random answer or whatever, who gives a ****

[Dr Will B Righteous]

As a person of science this poll is fallacious. No vote here.

[Uncle Sparky]

I already died. 'Poly exists in the afterlife. There is no escape.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

In the many-worlds interpretation I would think there would be many heavens and many hells.

As god/heaven/hell are solely parts of the universe (as some would believe). haha solely.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

Just think, in the many-worlds interpretation there could be more MWHC! wow, that's heaven!

[Aeson]

Each version of you goes to an apparently separate hell, but it only looks separate since we can't see the other dimensions. There is no heaven, sorry. That's just the level of hell that especially horrible people are sent to where they have to act all nice to each other for eternity.

[Jon Miller]

I don't think the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct and neither do a majority of physicists.

JM

[Elok]

I think the majority of them aren't religious either, if it comes to that. I would imagine each split iteration counts as a separate "person" here, but due to the sheer number of splits they aren't really people either, just momentary frames in a continuously diverging narrative.

[Lorizael]

I don't think the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct and neither do a majority of physicists.

JM

Pretty sure most physicists don't think MW is wrong so much as they subscribe to the "shut up and calculate" mentality. You probably know better than I, though.

[Lorizael]

Re: OP, my guess is there is one set of heaven and hell, and at the end of your life God sums up every iteration of your life and sees whether your total morality was positive or negative. MWI splits aren't really predicated on moral choiecs, so this wouldn't necessarily always come out even. Two difficulties with this approach are (a) what if you die at different times in different worlds and (b) what if God can't sum up your lives because they're (mathematically) divergent. To (a), I say that God exists outside of time and can calculate your life integral any damn time he pleases. To (b), I say that omnipotence probably includes techniques for making naughty functions converge.

[Elok]

IIUC this system would require quintillions of new universes to be generated every second from minute random events. Far faster than humans can think, because our thoughts would be the products of thousands of such events; it would render our agency meaningless.

[ZEE]

Elok is a nerd.

[Jon Miller]

Pretty sure most physicists don't think MW is wrong so much as they subscribe to the "shut up and calculate" mentality. You probably know better than I, though.

I haven't done the primary research on this question, of course, but the standard interpretation and the copenhagen interpretation appear to be the most common with many worlds being third or fourth (after environmental decoherence).

If you include only top research focused physicists (members of the academy of sciences, IIRC), the vast majority do not believe in God (and some are very antagonistic to religion). If you include everyone who got a PhD, then the majority believes in God (but more of the deist variety).

JM
(I have not done the primary research on that question too, just remember a couple surveys)

[My Wife Hates CIV]

every time elok posts I hear this ahhhzzz in the room. anyone else hear it? I dunno, maybe just the wind. maybe I drink too much.

[ZEE]

maybe I drink too much.