AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To flesh this out a bit more: suppose Pilate locks Jesus in Joseph of Arimathea’s specially-prepared tomb with the standard Geiger-counter-and-poison setup. After three days the counter has a 50% chance of triggering, leaving the tomb in a superposition of two states:
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The Geiger counter is triggered, Jesus dies for our sins and is resurrected, and humanity is saved.
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The Geiger counter isn’t triggered and Jesus’ bid to save humanity fails. But he realizes he can still prevent the rest of humanity from collapsing into a pure damned state: he miraculously changes the wave function of the cave’s contents to be identical to 1, including his own mental state.
After three days the tomb is opened, and a superposition of Jesus 1 and Jesus 2 emerges. Because the two states are identical, observing it doesn’t cause it to collapse into either pure state. The system remains in superposition until someone tries to observe the fate of a “saved” soul.