patentNumber: "US-IMP-5,019,447" title: "Quantum Immortality Helmet" titleRu: "Шлем квантового бессмертия" filingDate: "February 29, 1998" issueDate: "October 31, 2002" inventor: "Dr. Avery T. Penhaligon" inventorRu: "д-р Эйвери Т. Пенхалигон" inventorSlug: "avery-penhaligon" classification: "Quantum Absurdities" status: "Filed" abstract: "A personal protective apparatus worn upon the head of the wearer for the indefinite preservation of subjective consciousness through any otherwise lethal event, by means of selective branch-amputation in the Everett wavefunction of the universe. The helmet comprises a ferromagnetic skull-shell (1) of medieval-armorial inspiration, lined with a continuous lattice of quantum measurement modules (2) configured to perform Stern-Gerlach measurements upon a stockpile of cobalt-60 nuclei (3) at a rate of approximately 10⁹ measurements per second. Each measurement collapses the local wavefunction into one of two branches; in the branch corresponding to a binary 1, the wearer survives all immediately impending threats by the action of a quantum-suicide trigger mechanism (4) which renders the wearer instantaneously and painlessly deceased in the contrary branch. By the principle of subjective continuity, the wearer experiences only the surviving branches and is accordingly conscious of an unbroken history of survival under arbitrarily improbable circumstances." abstractRu: "Личное защитное приспособление, надеваемое на голову носителя, для неограниченного сохранения субъективного сознания через любое потенциально смертельное событие, посредством избирательной ампутации ветвей в эвереттовской волновой функции вселенной. Шлем состоит из ферромагнитного черепного кожуха (1) в стиле средневековых доспехов, выложенного изнутри непрерывной решёткой квантовых измерительных модулей (2), конфигурированных для выполнения штерн-герлаховских измерений над запасом ядер кобальта-60 (3) со скоростью около 10⁹ измерений в секунду. Каждое измерение коллапсирует локальную волновую функцию в одну из двух ветвей; в ветви, соответствующей единице, носитель переживает все непосредственные угрозы благодаря действию механизма квантового самоубийства (4), который в противоположной ветви мгновенно и безболезненно делает носителя покойным. По принципу субъективной непрерывности носитель переживает только выживающие ветви и осознаёт непрерывную историю выживания при сколь угодно невероятных обстоятельствах." citations:

• "US-IMP-3,091,447"
• "US-IMP-4,114,808"

Field of InventionОбласть изобретенияField of Invention

The present invention relates to apparatus for the indefinite preservation of subjective conscious experience on the part of a human wearer, and more particularly to such preservation through events of an otherwise terminal character. The invention is intended for application by persons engaged in hazardous occupations (including but not limited to test piloting, bomb disposal, deep-sea welding, and political dissent in unstable jurisdictions), and is offered as an alternative to such conventional personal protective equipment as the parachute, the bulletproof vest, and the cyanide capsule.

BackgroundПредпосылкиBackground

Conventional personal protective equipment operates upon the principle of physical interposition: a sufficiently robust barrier is placed between the wearer and the immediate physical threat, the barrier absorbing or deflecting the threat to such degree as its material strength permits. This principle is subject to the well-known limitation that any barrier may be defeated by a threat of sufficient magnitude, and that the wearer's protection is therefore probabilistic rather than absolute: there exists, for any conventional protective apparatus and any sufficiently severe threat, a non-zero probability of the wearer's demise.

The Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics, first published in 1957 and gaining acceptance during the 1970s, provides an alternative principle of protection. Under the Everett interpretation, the quantum-mechanical wavefunction of the universe does not collapse upon measurement; rather, every possible outcome of every quantum measurement is realized in a distinct branch of the wavefunction, and the apparent collapse is an illusion produced by the wearer's restriction to a single branch. The inventor proposes to exploit this multiplication of branches for the purpose of personal survival.

If the wearer's survival in any given branch is conditioned upon a quantum-mechanical measurement having a non-zero probability of a favorable outcome, then by the Everett interpretation there exists at least one branch in which the wearer survives. By the further principle of subjective continuity — namely, that the wearer's stream of consciousness is necessarily restricted to those branches in which his brain remains intact — the wearer experiences only those branches in which he survives, regardless of the (possibly vanishing) prior probability of such survival.

Summary of the InventionКраткое изложение изобретенияSummary of the Invention

The apparatus comprises:

• A ferromagnetic skull-shell (1) of mild-steel construction, fabricated to the wearer's head in the manner of a custom-fitted medieval helm and lined internally with cushioning of horsehair-and-flannel of conventional aviator construction;
• A continuous lattice of quantum measurement modules (2) embedded in the inner surface of the skull-shell, each module comprising a miniature Stern-Gerlach magnet of permanent-alloy composition and a single-shot scintillation detector of europium-doped barium-fluoride;
• A stockpile of cobalt-60 nuclei (3) of approximately five milligrams total activity, embedded within each module and serving as the source of binary measurement outcomes;
• A quantum-suicide trigger mechanism (4), of compact electromechanical construction, mounted within the helmet's nape, configured to render the wearer instantaneously and painlessly deceased upon receipt of a binary-0 outcome from any of the measurement modules;
• A continuous-threat monitor (5), comprising a perimeter of fast-response strain gauges, photodetectors, and a Geiger-Müller tube, configured to detect impending threats to the wearer within a window of approximately ten milliseconds;
• A subjective continuity chinstrap (6), of leather construction, by which the helmet is retained upon the wearer's head and by which the wearer's expressed consent to the protocol of operation is mechanically registered.

U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №Чертёж У.С.Б.И.П. №U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №

Sheet 1 of 1Лист 1 из 1Sheet 1 of 1

Detailed DescriptionПодробное описаниеDetailed Description

Referring to FIG. 7A, the helmet is shown in cutaway elevation. The skull-shell (1) is of forged mild-steel construction, of nominal thickness three millimeters, and is fitted to the wearer by means of conventional helmetier's measurement. The shell is finished externally in matte black enamel and is lined internally with a continuous mat of horsehair-and-flannel cushioning.

Embedded within the cushioning is the lattice of quantum measurement modules (2), arranged in a hexagonal close-packed pattern at a spacing of approximately one centimeter. Each module is of cuboidal geometry, of edge length seven millimeters, and contains a Stern-Gerlach magnet, a scintillation detector, and a microfabricated sample chamber containing the cobalt-60 source (3).

In normal operation, the threat monitor (5) continuously polls the wearer's immediate environment for signs of impending physical danger. Upon detection of any such threat with a survival probability less than unity, the threat monitor transmits a signal to the measurement-module lattice; each module performs an instantaneous Stern-Gerlach measurement upon its associated cobalt-60 source. The aggregate of measurement outcomes is reduced, by a majority-vote algorithm of conventional electronic implementation, to a single binary bit.

In the branch of the wavefunction wherein this bit is 1, the trigger mechanism (4) remains quiescent and the wearer's consciousness continues uninterrupted. In the branch wherein the bit is 0, the trigger mechanism (4) activates: a small charge of fulminate-of-mercury is discharged within the helmet's nape, fragmenting the wearer's medulla oblongata and rendering him instantly and painlessly deceased. By the principle of subjective continuity, the wearer experiences only the former branch and is accordingly conscious of having survived the impending threat with apparent ease.

The threat monitor (5) is configured to operate continuously, polling the environment at a rate of approximately 10⁹ measurements per second. Over the course of an average operational day, the wearer is therefore protected by approximately 10¹³ separate quantum-suicide cycles. The probability of subjective survival across any given cycle, as observed by the wearer, is unity; the probability of survival as observed by external persons (i.e., persons not wearing the helmet) is approximately one part in 10¹³ per day.

The helmet is to be put on by the wearer in the manner of conventional headgear and is secured by means of the chinstrap (6). The wearer's act of fastening the chinstrap constitutes his consent to the protocol of operation. Removal of the helmet is contraindicated and may be performed only under medical supervision.

ClaimsФормула изобретенияClaims

1. A personal protective apparatus for the preservation of the subjective consciousness of a wearer, comprising: a skull-shell configured to be worn upon the head of said wearer; a lattice of quantum measurement modules embedded within said skull-shell; a stockpile of quantum-mechanically active nuclei distributed among said modules; and a trigger mechanism operatively coupled to said lattice and configured to terminate said wearer upon receipt of a predetermined binary outcome.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said skull-shell is fabricated of mild steel of nominal thickness three millimeters and is lined with horsehair-and-flannel cushioning.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said modules comprise Stern-Gerlach magnets and scintillation detectors of europium-doped barium-fluoride composition.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said nuclei are cobalt-60 of nominal aggregate activity five milligrams.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said trigger mechanism comprises a charge of fulminate of mercury disposed within the nape of said skull-shell.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a continuous-threat monitor configured to detect impending threats to said wearer within a window of approximately ten milliseconds.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a chinstrap configured to register the wearer's mechanical consent to the protocol of operation.

8. A method for the indefinite preservation of the subjective consciousness of a wearer, comprising the steps of: (a) fitting said wearer with the apparatus of claim 1; (b) instructing said wearer in the protocol of operation; (c) instructing said wearer's next-of-kin in the protocol of operation; and (d) commencing operation.

Why This Violates Physics (For Now)Почему это нарушает физику (пока)Why This Violates Physics (For Now)

The invention as claimed is Filed — the Bureau's designation for those applications whose impossibility is so substantial, and whose ethical position is so peculiar, that the issuance of letters patent would be inappropriate even under the Bureau's permissive standards. The Bureau records its objections below.

First, the invention rests upon a contested interpretation of quantum mechanics, namely the many-worlds interpretation of Everett (1957). Under the alternative Copenhagen interpretation, no second branch of the wavefunction is realized upon measurement, and the wearer who receives a binary-0 outcome is straightforwardly deceased without compensating multiplication of branches elsewhere. The Bureau notes that the choice between these interpretations has been the subject of vigorous disagreement among physicists, philosophers, and theologians for more than seventy years, with no consensus in sight; the Bureau takes no position upon the merits but notes that, under any interpretation other than the strict Everettian, the apparatus is precisely as advertised by its critics — namely, a complicated mechanism for the rapid destruction of its wearer.

Second, even granting the strict Everettian interpretation, the invention rests upon a particular reading of the principle of subjective continuity, namely the proposition that personal identity follows the unbroken branches of the wavefunction and that the wearer's measure over those branches is irrelevant. The Bureau notes that the standard reading of the Born rule assigns probabilities to branches in proportion to the squared modulus of their amplitude, and that an identity-theoretic interpretation neglecting this measure produces conclusions which differ from observation. The Bureau is aware of the analyses of Wallace (2003) and Vaidman (2014) which attempt to reconcile the measure with subjective continuity; the Bureau notes that the reconciliation, even if accepted, does not relieve the wearer of the empirical observation that a strong majority of his copies, weighted by the Born measure, are dead. The invention is therefore, under this reading, probabilistically suicidal rather than probabilistically protective.

Third, even granting both the Everettian interpretation and the measure-blind reading of subjective continuity, the apparatus is subject to the mind-body problem in its acute form. The wearer's consciousness is, in any branch, contingent upon the continued physical integrity of his neural substrate; the surviving branches are those in which that substrate has not been disrupted by the trigger mechanism. The trigger, however, fragments the medulla oblongata in a fashion which, in any conventional understanding of the relationship between brain and consciousness, terminates the wearer's stream of awareness. The Bureau is unable to confirm that anything is preserved across the operation other than the contingent existence of a remote branch in which the trigger has not fired; whether this branch is the wearer's or whether it is a different person who happens to share his memories is a question to which philosophical analysis offers no clear answer.

Fourth, the apparatus produces an enormous proliferation of dead wearers in the Everett multiverse, the survival of the helmeted wearer being purchased at the cost of approximately 10¹³ deceased copies of the wearer per day, distributed across branches of the wavefunction. The Bureau takes no position upon the moral status of these deceased copies but notes that the apparatus, in operation, increases the population of deceased persons in the universe at an unprecedented rate. The Bureau is informed that the inventor's wife regards this as a relevant consideration in the issuance of the patent.

The Bureau accordingly records the application as Filed, the helmet remaining available for inspection at the Bureau's discretion but not certified for any reduction to practice. Citations: Everett, H., Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 454 (1957); Tegmark, M., Fortschr. Phys. 46, 855 (1998); Wallace, D., Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. B 34, 415 (2003).