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Quantum Suicide: Walter Benjamin and the multiverse

量子自杀：沃尔特·本杰明和多元宇宙

基本信息

批准号：
AH/H020470/1
负责人：
Andrew Crumey
金额：
$ 1.69万
依托单位：
Newcastle University
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2010 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH020470%2F1
关键词：
Quantum Suicide Walter Benjamin multiverse

项目摘要

Parallel universes are a familiar theme in fiction. From Philip Pullman to Doctor Who, readers and viewers of all ages have become attuned to the idea of other worlds almost like our own, but crucially different. Often this takes the form of 'alternate history', where a particular event is imagined to have gone differently, creating a new timeline. The idea has appeared not only in fantasy and science-fiction, but also in mainstream fiction and cinema, with examples such as Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and the movie Sliding Doors.Modern science appears to offer evidence that these worlds really exist. Physicists including Paul Davies and Michio Kaku have published popular books describing how quantum mechanics and superstring theory imply our observable universe is only a tiny part of a far richer 'multiverse', where every possibility becomes actual. Cosmologist Max Tegmark has discussed 'quantum suicide', a version of the famous Schrödinger Cat thought-experiment in which the experimenter takes the place of the animal. Since one's own death can never be observed, it is argued, the only possible result is a universe where one survives. Such speculations sound like plotlines from Jorge Luis Borges or Philip K Dick.Has science influenced art, or has it been the other way round? This research will explore the history and philosophy of multiple realities through the composition of a novel of ideas.Surprisingly, the idea of parallel worlds was put forward in the nineteenth century, in Louis-Auguste Blanqui's L'Eternite par les astres (1872). Blanqui used the theory of atomic elements to argue there must be planets where, for instance, Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo. A communist who spent most of his life in prison for revolutionary conspiracies, Blanqui also speculated on worlds where he was free.Physicists completely ignored Blanqui's pseudo-scientific work, but it is remembered thanks to Walter Benjamin, who rediscovered it in the 1930s. Benjamin considered Blanqui's cosmology a manifestation of the bourgeois society he fought against. Capitalism views the world as a casino; the multiverse is a 'phantasmogoria' where everyone can be a winner. In the popular writings of present-day physicists such as Stephen Hawking, metaphors of gambling and winning arise frequently.The proposed novel will feature Benjamin as a character, but more importantly, it will reflect on his theories of culture, art and history. Through multiple storylines in several historical periods, the novel will explore how ancient ideas of plurality, found in Plato and revived by Leibniz, have been reinterpreted over the ages. In real life, Blanqui was involved in a masonic secret society (the charbonnerie), while Benjamin was deeply drawn to mystical and esoteric thought. The novel will imagine a secret society whose version of 'quantum suicide' leads them to carry out acts of terrorism. Benjamin committed suicide in 1940 rather than face arrest by the Gestapo. The theory he discussed extensively in his Arcades Project was one that implied his own survival, in another world if not this one.

平行宇宙是小说中常见的主题。从菲利普普尔曼到神秘博士，各个年龄段的读者和观众都已经适应了其他世界的想法，这些世界几乎和我们自己的世界一样，但又有着至关重要的不同。这通常采取“交替历史”的形式，在那里，一个特定的事件被想象成不同的，创造了一个新的时间轴。这个想法不仅出现在幻想和科幻小说中，也出现在主流小说和电影中，例如菲利普·罗斯的《反美阴谋》和电影《滑动门》。现代科学似乎提供了这些世界确实存在的证据。包括Paul Davies和Michio Kaku在内的物理学家已经出版了一些畅销书，描述了量子力学和超弦理论如何暗示我们的可观测宇宙只是一个更丰富的“多元宇宙”的一小部分，在那里每一种可能性都成为现实。宇宙学家马克斯·泰格马克（Max Tegmark）讨论了“量子自杀”，这是著名的薛定谔猫思想实验的一个版本，实验者取代了动物。既然一个人的死亡永远无法被观察到，那么唯一可能的结果就是一个人生存的宇宙。这样的推测听起来像是豪尔赫·路易斯·博尔赫斯或菲利普·K·迪克的故事情节。是科学影响了艺术，还是艺术反过来影响了科学？本研究将通过一部小说的构思来探索多重现实的历史和哲学。令人惊讶的是，平行世界的概念是在世纪在路易-奥古斯特·布朗基的《天体的永恒》（1872）中提出的。布朗基用原子元素理论论证了一定有行星存在，例如，拿破仑在滑铁卢战役中获胜。作为一名共产主义者，他一生中的大部分时间都因革命阴谋而在监狱中度过，布朗基还推测了他自由的世界。物理学家完全忽略了布朗基的伪科学工作，但由于沃尔特·本雅明在20世纪30年代重新发现了它，它才被人们记住。本雅明认为布朗基的宇宙论是他所反对的资产阶级社会的表现。资本主义将世界视为赌场;多元宇宙是一个“幻影”，每个人都可以成为赢家。在斯蒂芬·霍金等当代物理学家的通俗作品中，赌博和获胜的隐喻经常出现。拟议中的小说将以本杰明为主角，但更重要的是，它将反映他的文化，艺术和历史理论。通过几个历史时期的多个故事情节，小说将探讨在柏拉图发现并由莱布尼茨复兴的古老多元思想如何在几个世纪以来被重新解释。在真实的生活中，布朗基参与了一个共济会的秘密社团（charbonnerie），而本杰明则深深地被神秘和深奥的思想所吸引。小说将想象一个秘密社会，其版本的“量子自杀”导致他们进行恐怖主义行为。本杰明在1940年自杀，而不是面对盖世太保的逮捕。他在《拱廊街计划》中广泛讨论的理论暗示了他自己的生存，如果不是这个世界的话，也是另一个世界的生存。