No one can know what happens (if anything) in the afterlife, or if there even is one. Given a total lack of verifiable experimental evidence, I feel certain that that statement will always be true; so I doubt that physics can solve the problem.

As to whether it is dangerous to believe in an afterlife, if it brings hope to miserable lives it is probably useful; but if it is mostly used (as it is so often) to allow the rich and powerful to steal the lives of the poor and powerless, then it is undoubtedly a bad thing. But that is something that will undoubtedly be debated for as long as there are humans, also without any resolution.

read on Boltzmann brains. they will appear later than 10^60 years or so and on.

since probabilistically those brains configurations would be ones that had already been expressed in that universe, you would say, this would be a literal "after life" for these brains.

now what happens after this is a complete mystery, however don't let people lie to you. Boltzmann himself was aware how real they were to the point that he hung himself after sending his wife and children out because he could not reconcile if he was such a brain himself.

tragically it didn't prove the experiment because, what if a foreign body were restricting the blood flow to the Boltzmann brain, and it didn't just perceive itself as "hanging" because it was dying from some other "realm" lets just say or plain or wherever the Boltzmann brain happens to be. so a failed experiment led to the early death of a worthy human, due to correlation does not imply causation.

this also depends on the horizon speed of the universe, too fast and Boltzmann brains may not appear but we don't know, and i would take it seriously.

Courtney Seligman Thank you Dr. Seligman for your response,

I agree that presently we cannot exactly quantify the afterlife. Once we expand the law of identity to BOTH physics AND engineering, we MAY be able to exactly quantify the afterlife. Especially if the afterlife is in another dimension and or universe that we POTENTIALLY could travel to, without dying.

Best,

Alexander Ohnemus

Michael W Barry Thank you Dr. Barry for the fascinating ideas,

From what I have gathered( https://bigthink.com/hard-science/boltzmann-brain-nothing-is-real/ ) Boltzmann Brains may or may not exist. Yet, they do not seem parsimonious and one should NEVER commit suicide. So, the risks of believing in Boltzmann Brains outweigh the benefits( Data Have to Lose Postulate

1. Book Highly Theoretical Differential Equations of the Afterlife

2. Preprint Individuation: The Most Parsimonious Afterlife

3. Preprint Critical Rationalist Parapsychology

Best,

Alexander Ohnemus

sadly boltzmann brains are mathematical artifact as long as the universe does not expand to quickly.

i would point to consciousness as the underlying fact which pivotals the afterlife! Physics would touch on this on the basis of our mental capabilities... So then, perhaps we could quantify the afterlife, given the availability of resources.

All religions are sure that an afterlife exists. In several, as in shamanism, it is also possible to travel to this world and make contact with the deceased. Surprisingly, also Western intergenerational therapy methods such as family reconstruction or familaconstellation can often solve or reduce patients' current problems. These proven effects cannot be explained scientifically, unless one assumes that not only all the people from our childhood, but also all ancestors who have long since passed away are internalized in our psyche and thus, from a psychological point of view, “only” an exchange of different parts of the personality takes place and is effective. But physically this is not (yet) measurable.

Afterlife is destined to final judgement. This question seems to belong to spirituality.

The question

“If physics adjusted for the law of identity, could we exactly quantify the afterlife? How?”

- cannot be scientifically answered, and can be only commented:

- as that really rigorously scientifically shown in the Shevchenko-Tokarevsky’s really philosophical 2007 “The Information as Absolute” conception, recent version of the basic paper see

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363645560_The_Information_as_Absolute_-_2022_ed

- physics, which studies the informational system “Matter” fundamentally cannot be applied to both lives – to “ordinary” life, which all living beings experience, and afterlife, even that really exists [though from the conception above it follows that afterlife practically for sure exists].

That is since in the conception it is rigorously proven, that fundamental phenomena/notions “Matter” and “Consciousness” are fundamentally different informational systems, while some consciousnesses fundamentally reside on/govern all/every living beings.

Just that differs, say, a practically material HCNO+ minor part of some other atoms else compound “a living being body+brain” from materially identical a completely material HCNO+ minor part of some atoms else compound “a living being body+brain after this being’s death””, i.e. after this living being’s consciousness has left this compound since it for some material reasons cannot be her some practically material auxiliary functional module.

More see the linked paper, though for first reading it is useful to read series of few SS posts in a sister thread “What could be proof of consciousness?” https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-could-be-proof-of-consciousness#view=6714c73e6ef2c989f30911f5/348/347/348/352/352/353/352/353/353/353/353/353/353 , page 353,

- which are well relevant to this thread question.

Cheers