Could we all live forever thanks to the twisted world of quantum mechanics? As crack-pot theories go, this one is an eye-opener. Let me explain how it works...
Everybody has heard of the famous Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment. Put a cat inside a sealed box with a vial of poisonous gas that will only be released if a radioactive atom spontaneously decays. While our feline friend is in the box, it exists in a superposition of states - both alive and dead at the same time. Despite its strangeness, this experiment underlies much of the theory of quantum mechanics. And, while it would be wonderful to say that quantum mechanics is just another crack-pot theory, it has been experimentally proven dozens of times. Hugh Everett III took the Schrodinger's Cat experiment one step further and suggested that, instead of being both dead and alive in the same universe, the universe splits into two allowing one reality in which the cat survives, and one in which it doesn't.
So, how does a cat in a box make you immortal? Well, to answer that, we must look at the point of view of the cat. We don't have to get down on hands and knees and purr to do this; lets just replace Schrodinger's poor pet with you. Now, when the box is closed and the experiment set up, quantum mechanics says you will go into a superposition of states, in one of which you are dead. However, we humans are observers - we cannot exist as both dead and alive at the same time. This means we have to always take the path (or, according to Hugh Everett, the universe) in which we survive. Unfortunately human aging does not involve statistical choices like the lives of atoms. But maybe it's possible that this strange quirk of quantum mechanics explains why you or I have not yet stumbled into the path of an oncoming bus. I would certainly not bet my life on it.
