And the most depressing concept in the Universe award goes to..
Quantum Ethics? Suffering In The Multiverse
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ABSTRACT
The Abolitionist Project outlines how (post)humans will use biotechnology to abolish suffering in all sentient life. Sadly, this utopian-sounding outcome may not be nearly as wonderful as it sounds. Assume a "block-universe" conception of spacetime. The suffering occurring in what we naively call "the past" is as real and unalterable as what we call "the present". Moreover, post-Everett quantum mechanics suggests that Darwinian life abounds elsewhere in the Multiverse. In the vast majority of quasi-classical macroscopic branches in which sentient life arises, no hominid-like creatures will evolve capable of rewriting their own source code and abolishing pain. So "future" suffering persists indefinitely too. Worse, if Linde's chaotic eternal inflation scenario is correct, then the amount of suffering in Reality is increasing exponentially. Its extirpation in any one pocket universe like our own is a purely local phenomenon. The only crumb of comfort to be drawn from this analysis is that the scenarios sketched are all speculative.
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