h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Making sure you can be found - there's a great entry in Does Anything Eat Wasps released by New Scientist a couple of years ago about becoming a fossil, stuff you can do even if your death starts with a loud bang and an unfinished question of "What the ..."

It is very funny, if you want it I can find the book and get you the quote

has anybody seen the 50/50 death experiment, a great way of proving that there are parallel universes.

What you need is

1) a trigger that will fire exactly 50% of the time over a large enough set of experiments

2) a apparatus for killing yourself that is instantious and also guarenteeed to work - ie gun at temple of head.

3) way of linking the trigger to apparatus


- Now run experiment

2 things may happen ... - the gun fires or it doesn't.

If the gun doesn't fire, you are alive, if it does you die ... or do you?

if the tigger is truely random (ie a radioactive decay) then apparently in every universe that the gun fires, another universe will exist were it doesn't.

While observers may see your brains explode over the walls in half of all experiments

You will only be aware of the experiments were the gun didn't go off. If you repeat this experiment a decent amount of times (a few dozen) and are still alive, you are either

1) very lucky

2) proving the existance of parrallel worlds

+ at least you don't have to help out cleaning in the other few hundred universes where the gun went off

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Fantastic!

The article on how to get yourself fossilised is here, if anyone's curious: http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=lw1052

And while I'm drifting away from the topic, here's an amusing short story by Terry Pratchett on the subject of multiple universes and impending death:
http://www.lspace.org/books/dawcn/dawcn-english.html

Very Good

well done!

Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way. I'll be after the subbie to insert appropriate credit tags.

Congratulations Leo, this should be a great entry.

It should be but...

Not, I won't do that, sorry.

Why the ?

A slap with a wet haddock. I've learned from Wilma that it is more effective than a - unless I happen to toting a bowling ball at the time.

I always learn good stuff from my elders.

Well done.

<>

Wilma learned that from me.

Congratulations Leo. Boffo, a good one

Well done, Leo. and

Boffo, yes - even Socko