John McAfee is not Dead: he just Moved to Another Universe.

In quantum field theory, all possible trajectories of the single photon through the slits are objectively real, like Schrödinger’s cat, which is both alive and dead at the same time, until you open the box. There is however one main alternative theory to the Copenhagen interpretation and this is something people might have heard of because it has been quite publicized by some science fiction shows and TV science popularisers.

The many-worlds interpretation, posited by physicist and military scientist, Hugh Everett III, states that the wave function doesn’t actually collapse at all when a measurement of the position of the photon or other quantum object is made. Instead, what happens for instance when you open Schrödinger’s box, is that two realities are created, one where the cat is dead and one where it is alive. In that sense, the wave function is eternal and never truly collapses. Everett believed the whole universe was a single quantum wave which never collapses but just eternally branches out into ‘different worlds’. So for every photon or subatomic particle in the universe, there must be different universes where all the near infinite possibilities are expressed.[i]

Believe it or not there are real scientists who believe this. For me, thinking like this is like following Ignacio de Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, it’s a good way to induce auto-psychosis, or in other words, go insane.

Everett was scorned by fellow scientists at the time, but in recent times his theory has gained acceptance among people who really should know better. Everett believed in something called quantum immortality, which is a very strange kind of fabricated scientific thesis to allow him and indeed, everyone, to live forever. In his quantum immortality theory, he believed that because his many worlds theory of parallel universes, meant that things such as quantum particles were forever branching off to enter new universes, his consciousness too, would follow a path, eternally branching off into different universes, so as to always take the path that avoided death. So presumably he believed that on his deathbed, he would suddenly find himself in his own body, alive, but in a different universe, and this would presumably happen forever.

It does seem a particularly desperate way to gain the immortality of your soul, by inventing outlandish scientific and by definition, completely unprovable theories, when by definition, science prides itself on being provable.  There are easier ways to find out about life after death and they are simply by reading the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It would make a pretty good science fiction story I guess, following someone through different near-death experiences, and finding himself reset at a different point, each time, and I wonder if it has been done yet. It would have a kind of Philip K Dick flavour perhaps, or it could be a scientist who somehow creates a device which allows him to escape death and live forever by switching between different universes. Everett would theorise about playing Russian roulette, and that if he shot himself his consciousness would then enter a different branch of the ‘many worlds’ and survive, presumably he believed he could eternally shoot himself in the head and his consciousness would always find itself in the winning branch with the gun still in his hand and holding a gun where the bullet is always in a different chamber. In fact, that iconic image of John McAfee holding a gun to his head, was part of an interview with Wired where he goes into his own theories about so called quantum suicide.

This is from a Sun article reporting on the Wired article, it’s clearly an example of second-hand news but I suppose it’s at least encouraging that the Sun is covering something like this which is somewhat outside their usual range of interests, not that I’ve really read a copy of the Sun since I used to deliver them on my paper round.

 “’Quantum suicide’ is a theoretical thought experiment which is based on the idea there are an infinite amount of parallel universes. The mind-bending theory goes that every decision creates a different universe, according to the basis of quantum mechanics. So the outlandish conceptual experiment claims if this is all true – you should be able to stand in front of loaded gun and survive. This is because your consciousness only continues in the parallel universe in which you survive – thus proving we have ‘quantum immortality’. Quantum suicide however is only an abstract thought experiment – and would not work in the real world – and it used mainly as a concept to help distinguish between different theories of quantum mechanics. McAfee however appears to have been intrigued by the idea. And the he even appeared to perform the thought experiment live for a journalist from WIRED[ii] in 2013.”[iii]

When I was a kid, I used to enjoy all the science fiction shows like Doctor Who, Star Trek and Red Dwarf. I genuinely thought those kind of shows were somewhat mind-expanding and I think they may have played their part in my particular interests and researches and my writing this book. There was a pretty good episode from one of the more recent series of Red Dwarf called ‘Skipper’ where they encounter an anomaly in space and find themselves undergoing strange effects as a result of each choice they don’t make. So for instance, Cat refuses to make Lister a coffee, because after all ‘Hey, I’m a Cat. I ain’t making you no coffee’ and the next thing he’s handing Lister a cup and saying ‘milk and two sugars right?’. There are some pretty funny and mind-bending moments. Kryten says he’s going to try a ‘weird’ experiment, and Rimmer asks how weird. Kryten then responds, “only moderately weird, say 1989, Michael Jackson”. Then to test his hypothesis, Kryten asks Rimmer if he wants him to throw him an apple or an orange, Rimmer asks for an apple and although Kryten throws an apple, Rimmer catches an orange. It is then that Kryten explains that for some reason they are experiencing the Everett Many-Worlds phenomenon, and he explains to Rimmer that each choice you make, creates branching universes, although because of the anomaly in space, they are finding themselves in the universe with the choice they didn’t make to which Rimmer replies:

“That’s more than moderately weird Kryten, that’s more like a 1993 Michael Jackson.”  So in order to make any progress they have to decide to not do what they actually want to do, and they find themselves doing it. It’s actually a really funny episode and really demonstrates the theory
behind the Everetian interpretation of Quantum mechanics, although I think it’s all nonsense, but like I say, it makes good science-fiction.

It turns out the anomaly in space is because of some technology that Kryten had earlier found and had just been repairing called a Quantum Skipper. Following the Everett interpretation of Quantum mechanics, Rimmer uses the ‘skipper’ to visit different universes hoping to find one where he is not such a smeghead.  So the multiverse theory does have a lot of traction in the media and weirdly I think it is easier for people to get their heads round, and probably makes a better story, than the Copenhagen interpretation. There’s a funny moment where Rimmer first uses the Quantum Skipper, and finds himself whisked off to another dimension and finds himself still on Red Dwarf in another universe, to his surprise in this Universe Holly is still the Red Dwarf computer and in his surprise at seeing Holly he asks:

“When is this? Where am I?”

To which Norman Lovett, in that wonderfully flat dead pan which he does so well says:

“It’s Monday….and you’re in a corridor…”

 One universe he finds himself in he is delighted to find a dull version of Lister who is an avid collector of vintage wires, and is delighted with the prospect of helping him re-label them, but instead of an evolved humanoid Cat creature, this universe has an unpleasant and aggressive giant humanoid rat creature, so he leaves for the next universe.

After that each reality seems to be worse than the previous one, except where he finally finds himself human and not a hologram and he’s a married to a navigation officer, with four sons. Of course, there’s one problem, it turns out Lister is the Captain of the Red Dwarf in this reality, and the prospect of serving under a slobbish but hugely successful Captain Lister who using stasis pods to keep his hot tasty snacks frozen in time and ready to eat, is one thing Rimmer can’t take so in the end he ends up returning to his original universe, and it seems he couldn’t find a single universe from amongst the infinite multiverse to inhabit which would make him feel less of a loser.

Surprisingly, even in Winston Churchill’s day, the multiverse theory had some currency and he wrote in his
autobiography, My Early Life:

 “Certainly nothing could be more repulsive to both our minds and feelings than the spectacle of thousands of millions of universes – for that is what they say it comes to now – all knocking about together for ever without any rational or good purpose behind them.”[iv]

On the subject of Churchill’s autobiography, you can learn a great deal about the man’s sense of his own importance by reading his autobiography, for in the same volume he wrote that his mere attendance at church as a youth, brought in a steady income at the ‘Bank of Observance’, although he observed:

“I have never made too close enquiries about the state of my account. It might well even be that I should find an overdraft.”[v] Churchill often believed he was being guided by a higher power:

“Over me beat invisible wings,” and when a mortar exploded in the WW1 trenches killing a man next to him, he wrote: “the strong sensation that a hand had been stretched out to move me in the nick of time from a fatal spot.”[vi]

And, of encountering God, with typical self-importance, Churchill wrote:

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”[vii]

But let’s move swiftly away from the nauseating bloat of Winston Churchill’s supreme sense of self-importance which I suspect must have taken a few knocks once he turned up in the next world looking for a drink and God showed a film reel of ‘modern Britain’ and the world he helped to create by ruthlessly pursuing the agenda of war which has only led us, at the time of writing this, to the verge of another apocalyptical world war, while those who backed Churchill’s rise to power are now fully enthroned and seem to be playing an integral part in fomenting a war which I presume will destroy the West for good to leave them finally as masters of the Earth. I can imagine such ruminations being hell enough for any man.