Quantum Immortality

A Perspective If AI Doomers Are Probably Right

Authors

  • Alexey Turchin Digital Immortality Now, Open Longevity
  • James Miller Professor of Economics, Smith College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70777/si.v2i2.14439

Keywords:

quantum immortality, many worlds, ai doom probability, p doom, ai apocalypse

Abstract

What should you believe will be the likely cause of your survival if you are an AI Doomer who believes in quantum immortality? An AI Doomer believes that if their understanding of AI existential risks is correct, humanity must get extremely lucky to survive. A person who believes in quantum immortality thinks that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics implies that their consciousness will necessarily continue in some branch of the multiverse. This article shows that combining these two beliefs requires rejecting or going beyond simple Bayesian reasoning when estimating one's most likely cause of survival. Such estimates may have practical implications for investment decisions, reputation management, and anthropic shadows.

Author Biographies

Alexey Turchin, Digital Immortality Now, Open Longevity

Founder of Digital Immortality Now. Author or co-author:

Classification of Global Catastrophic Risks Connected with Artificial Intelligence

Long-Term Trajectories of Human Civilization

Global Solutions vs. Local Solutions for the AI Safety Problem

Forever and Again: Necessary Conditions for “Quantum Immortality” and its Practical Implications

 

James Miller, Professor of Economics, Smith College

James Miller specializes in law and economics, game theory and the economics of future technology.

Miller has recently written on the technological singularity the Fermi paradox and intelligence augmentation. He has appeared on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and Stossel. He is a member of cryonics provider Alcor. He was a candidate for the Massachusetts State Senate.

Miller has a podcast called Future Strategist and has created YouTube videos on game theory and introductory microeconomics.

References

Bostrom, N. (2001). The Doomsday Argument Adam & Eve, UN++, and Quantum Joe. Synthese, 127(3), 359–387.

Ćirković, M. M., Sandberg, A., & Bostrom, N. (2010). Anthropic shadow: Observation selection effects and human extinction risks. Risk Analysis, Vol. 30, No. 10, 2010.

Garrabrant, S., Benson-Tilsen, T., Critch, A., Soares, N., & Taylor, J. (2016). Logical induction. arXiv Preprint arXiv:1609.03543.

Randall, A. F. (2004). Quantum miracles and immortality. Quantum, 5, 8.

Turchin, A. (2018). Forever and Again: Necessary Conditions for the “Quantum Immortality” and its Practical Implications.

Turchin, A. (2020). Presumptious philosopher proves panspermia.

Yudkowsky, E., & Soares, N. (2017). Functional Decision Theory: A New Theory of Instrumental Rationality. arXiv:1710.05060 [Cs]. http://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05060 SuperIntelligence – Robotics – Safety & Alignment 2025 2(2) Large Language Models II

Combine Quantum Immortality and AI Doomer Views

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Published

2025-05-29

How to Cite

Turchin, A., & Miller, J. D. (2025). Quantum Immortality: A Perspective If AI Doomers Are Probably Right. SuperIntelligence - Robotics - Safety & Alignment, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.70777/si.v2i2.14439

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2025): Large Language Models II

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Alexei Turchin, Jim Miller

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.