What happened to Liz after she killed herself? Well since there were countless version of her in different projections of reality, and since the closest ones shared a large part of her personality and memories, it seems reasonable to assume that her consciousness continued in the versions that had not killed themselves.
Of course this must be a brick-like approximation, perhaps consciousness is a property of the complete wavefunction that does not allow itself to be associated to a specific projection.
Let it be known that I edited gpmap’s article to include all of the links except the very first one, which was in his original submission.
In some ways this probably seems like an odd article with which to start the New Year, but it is about a matter of legitimate historical fact and philosophical discussion associated with one of our greatest physicists. I would front-page this story on that merit alone. It is all too common to believe that Science is done without distraction in an ivory tower. It isn’t.
Another important point to acknowledge is the prevalence in our society of mental illness and suicide. Both are topics having a social taboo around them that makes them uncomfortable and hard to discuss. In an perfect world, they shouldn’t be. Mental illness and suicide should ideally be discussed openly as a medical topic no different that cancer or strep throat.
Publishing this article on the first day of 2004 is a small, small step in that direction that actually brings an sense of closure to me. My mother, Francis Eugenia Stewart Roberson, committed suicide 25 years ago on December 27, 1978. It hurt bad then and it still hurts now. I’ve been thinking about her all week, as I usually do this time of year.
In researching links to add to gpmap’s article, I came across for the first time The Suicide Memorial Wall. The internet as we know it today wasn’t even a dream when my mom died. Now it’s a place I am able to memorialize her at. Putting somebody’s name on a list a quarter century after she died isn’t quantum immortality, but it’s somehow oddly comforting to me nonetheless for today, the first day of 2004.
Thanks, gpmap.
When someone we love chooses to leave us, we hurt. Yet, in the case of suicide, I cannot help but feel that at least the person making such a choice is finally free of pain. I hope such a thought doesn’t sound too blunt or too simplistic, but I find a small consolation in feeling those who commit suicide are NOT mentally off-balance as some consider them, but merely ready not to be here anymore. We can accept that decision even though we miss them and have so many lingering questions… and even worse, all the “if only”s.
I hope knowing that others feel sorrow because of such a profound grief in your life helps during times like the holiday season when you cannot keep from reliving that terrible time.
As for the topic of mental illnes, please continue to share postings concerning research which may be invaluable to readers on a personal level. Perhaps I should say, articles on mental illness research will be invaluable for those understanding that mental disorders have a medical, biological basis and are not a matter of choosing a type of behavior.
Hey, Ricky, you’ve given your entire planet Earth much to ponder this past year, writings full of Tennessee flavor and provocative scientific (um, and sometimes political) thought. We want a 2nd helping, please, in 2004. :-)
This issue amply demonstrates why we shouldn’t listen to our own selves, especially if we’ve somehow drifted into a self-referential frame of thought.(of course, depression multiplies that effect) Sometimes we really don’t know why we feel or think a certain way, but until we do, it is usually better to maintain a holding pattern on major decision making.
Personally, my first response to reality is that I would LOVE the world to revolve around me. But as my dad quickly brought to my attention when I was 8 or 9, with a bailing twine whipping after I impulsively locked him and a friend in an out building(on purpose), it does not and it should not.
Talk about getting grounded to reality in real a quick hurry!
It’s good, R, that you still discuss these things, difficult tho they may be. It helps to alert others of the profound and enduring impact they have on persons that live in the shadow of their existence.
that anyone who commits suicide is not in touch with reality but is centered on self? Believe it or not, I agree with you totally that NOT EVERY decision a person reaches by thinking for himself is a good decision. And obviously, any person who makes such a final choice as suicide is an individual in great distress.
I can’t begin to judge the level of another’s pain, however, whether it’s real or imagined. Being jolted into reality by a whipping after locking your father inside a building is one thing; trying to convince a local journalist here that the death of a grandbaby and the humiliation of his failed magazine shouldn’t have been reasons enough for him to bid adieu on Dec. 21, 2002, is quite another.
For those of us remaining, the suicide of a loved one has to be devastating. I cannot go so far as to say that the one committing suicide is mostly “self-referenced.” The possibility is that the person is fully aware of REALITY and chooses that permanent solution. I refuse to judge that person for being focused on self. I can wish with all my heart that his or her pain had not been so great.
I also agree with you that knowing the lasting effects suicide heaps upon a family may be just the information a potential suicide needs to think FURTHER for him/herself and reach a different decision. In that regard, Ricky is correct and courageous for making his personal experience public.
Just as an FYI. If you ask a quantum physics specialist but not a cosmologist, whether the MWI has been worked out so it can even be called a valid alternative interpretation to Quantum Theory. They will say NO. One reason is that it has NO solution to the “basis problem” which is the crux of the issue of the “Measurement Problem.” In general, it’s safe to say that most praticing physicists don’t accept it for various reasons. MWI is NOT!
Thanks rickyjames for the new links, in particular the last one. I think once we make conceptual sense of quantum physics, other answers will follow spontaneously, this is why I consider this as a very important line of research.
The story of the Hugh Liz and Mark Everett would make a terrific novel in the hands of someone like Pirsig or Gaarder. I really hope someone will write it.