The Re: Zero hypothesis [9up]

(btw the image is correct.)

Imagine you have a super-power where instead of dying, the world resets to a prior “save point” and you don’t die, ever. Let’s call this ability “return by death”.

Actually, this is the plot point of Re: Zero. So let’s imagine what would happen in a world like that: people without the power are not aware of the other timelines, so those with the power will seem to have tremendous foresight if they remember the previous timelines. The only thing outside observers see is that, since the world resets whenever the protagonist dies, there will be more “near-misses” where the world could end, but somehow miraculously averted it (because in other timelines the world did end killing the person(s) with “return by death” so it was reset).

So, just looking at this, we could in theory detect whether we are in such a world by checking whether there are more “near-misses” than expected. For example, if we discover that there are 100 large asteroids that narrowly missed the Earth, we might conclude that maybe somebody had a “return by death” ability that somehow adverted global disaster killing everyone.

But actually, this doesn’t really work as evidence for “return by death” – because there’s a less crazy explanation called the “anthropic principle” (or “observation selection effect”), which states that we can only observe the universes that didn’t lead to our own destruction. So even if we discover that 100 large asteroids narrowly missed Earth but none of them hit us, we would explain it with the anthropic principle, and nobody would even consider the possibility that somebody on Earth had the ability to reset the world if they die.

So, is there actually a way to statistically differentiate “return by death” and “anthropic principle”? I claim there isn’t. If I’m not very wrong, any statistical phenomenon that might have been due to “return by death” (where “I” have that ability) is fully explained by the “anthropic principle” (from “my” perspective) and vice versa, i.e. there is no way to tell via statistical observation whether “I” have the “return by death” ability or whether it’s just plain ol’ anthropic principle from “my” perspective.

So this leads to a surprising conclusion – I can’t know whether I have the “return by death” ability or not, and I can’t know whether I have died in other timelines and reset it. While obviously I don’t have any recollection of this happening, it’s possible that in this world the ability is slightly different from fiction, and while we are able to influence the world in a way that doesn’t lead to infinite loops of my death, I don’t remember what happened in previous timelines.

So, what should I believe? I actually have no evidence against “return by death” being a thing in this world. It’s such a subtle kind of ability. But unfortunately, I do have evidence for it. Or at least, it would conveniently explain premonitions…