Got a tough decision to make and just don't know which option to choose? Well, why not choose both options--but perform each in a different parallel universes?
www.cheapuniverses.com
Yes, in what must be one of the boldest marketing ploys yet, the website link:cheapuniverses.com/]www.cheapuniverses.com is offering two fates for the price of one. It even comes recommended by FQXi's Garrett Lisi, so I thought I'd highlight www.cheapuniverses.com it here. There's also a universe-splitting iPhone app
If you can't decide between two options--taking a bath or going for stroll are the examples offered on the site--log on to www.cheapuniverses.com, pay $3.95, and the organizers promise to "initiate an actual quantum event - just for you - which has two equally possible outcomes. Both outcomes will happen, but in _separate_ _universes_."
The physics behind the website is, of course, the Many World's Interpretation of quantum mechanics, proposed--as the site tells us--by the father of Mark Oliver Everett's of Eels (or Hugh Everett III). Everett wasn't happy with the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics that says that before observation, quantum objects don't exist in a single state, but are described by a wavefunction containing a superposition of multiple states. This is exemplified by Schrödinger's cat locked in a box with a radioactive atom that on decaying will trigger a mechanism that will release poison that will kill the cat. Until the box is opened, standard wisdom goes, the atom has both decayed and not decayed, and hence the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. When the box is opened, the wavefunction "collapses" and the cat snaps into one set state, life or death.
Everett's view was, instead, that the observer becomes entangled with the superpositioned object. Due to the correlation between the observer and the object, the observer splits into multiple copies. Each quantum option is satisfied--the cat both lives and dies--just in two parallel worlds.(For more, read "The Many Lives of Hugh Everett III."
Well, the physics is there. But in practice, why go to this website? Why not just a flip a coin to decide whether to take a bath or go for a walk? (I can't help thinking though, if you think you need a bath, you probably should take one.) The answer is that a classical coin flip won't give you a split universe. For that you need a quantum event, which is apparently supplied by the company idQuantique in Geneva.
The company idQuantique specializes in quantum cryptography--and their technology was used at the soccer World Cup in South Africa. I recently wrote a news article for Nature about claims that its supposedly invincible cryptographic system had been hacked, so it's nice to blog something more cheery about them.
But does it work? Well, I should say that I haven't (yet) tried it out. And even if I do, as cheapuniverse says itself, in small print: "Due to the separateness of the two universes, you won't be able to check in on your other self. But that other self will exist nonetheless, and will be exploring its universe just as you are yours."
Plus, there's a money-back guarantee: "Our universes are 100% guaranteed. If, after using our service, you find that you're not in a universe, contact us immediately. You're entitled to a complete refund, no questions asked. Of course, if you simply don't like the universe you've created, there will be no refund... but you can take some comfort in knowing that the other version of you is probably quite happy with our service."
Worth a try? (As long as it doesn't give Max Tegmark any more ideas about quantum suicide.)
And who says foundational physics doesn't pay?