Universes

Every being whose free will is capable of influencing the course of events has a so-called universe splitting power. This power, which we will call "splitter", is a passive effect of every arbitrarily immediate event or state caused by our existence. Even the most unconscious thought has this unique characteristic. All and only the conscious and undetermined beings possess the splitter, and are thus defined as splitter-carriers.
In every instant of the continuous time flow - as it can be discretized only due to abstraction - produces, for every splitter-carrier, an infinity of universes, along each of which runs a parallel of the splitter-carrier into question. Every splitter-carrier, to be more explicit, produces in every instant (remember: instants are zero-dimensional moments) infinite parallel universes, and splits himself into one copy per each universe. Every universe that branches from a particular instant, then, will contain a specific variant of the splitter-carrier who caused the splitting. The variations between these universes can be of arbitrary evidence: maybe it is only matter of an atomic mind state which will produce its effects only years later, but maybe it is part of a go left/go right decision sequence which may lead shortly to very different parallel universes.
There are an infinity of each of us. Infinite me, infinite you, each running through parallel universes which can be arbitrarily near or far from ours. The choices, or, more generally, all the states we have been responsible for in the past, have contributed to produce the present state because we have acted this way and not another. If we acted differently, or if our free will produced different states at different moments, chaining different reactions into the time-cause flow, the universe would be more or less different. This is another way to say that every instant's choice (remember, now and henceforwards I will use the word "choice" to mean also "mind states part of a chain of will or decision process" and all the like) results into an infinite multitude of universes. The universe we now are actually in, I as I am writing, you as you are reading, are partly the result of the history of your will-determination. I say "partly", since it is a trivially stupid mistake to say that our will determines everything. Before we were born, for example, some causal chains were already begun and would eventually inescapably lead to consequences on which we, even after the birth, didn't have any power. As an example, the actual structure of the solar system was not cause of any man's choice, at least before the invention of the nuclear bomb. If mankind, in a parallel universe, invented the nuclear bomb before 1900, and if in that universe or in our actual one man decided at a certain point to bomb down the moon, the solar system would be different. But at least, that there has been a solar system is something we have found in the universe. We didn't make the sun.
But this is all intuitive. Let us go into more interesting grounds.
There are infinite universes: infinite for every splitter-carrier and for every instant. The universe is infinite³. Hence, universes near from the one we are in may contain little variations. I may be singing while writing, you may not be reading. In slightly more distant universes, universes which have split before or which have lead to very different causal or will chains, you may not possess the computer from which you are reading this, and I may be with someone in a bar instead of being here writing. In even further universes I may not be in Italy anymore, and I could be in Pakistan selling carpets.
Generally, the earlier two universe split, the more they are likely to diverge in a relatively long time. But this is not always true: it is conceivable that sometimes we make choices, or produce states, so much ininfluent on the universe that go almost unnoticed. In these cases, the parallel universes which result from the splitting will form a much more coherent set than the universe which result from the splitting in instants which bear heavier consequences. Of course extremes are possible: in relatively "easy" chains we may produce totally uncongruous states, which would eventually lead to extreme and chaotic situations, thus producing a very divergent parallel universe.
In most of the more diverging universes, we are dead. This is because the most "important" and saturated-with-consequences choices often bear extreme consequence. It is the go left/go right situation already cited above. Shall I wait for the green or run across the street right now?
Of course, this is not always the case: in certain very far universes we have simply chosen a very, very different life and we are somewhere else with someone else.
Anyway, death in this frame is quite relative. In every instant, the universe splits. We, the splitter-carriers, produce an universe per each possible determination of our will or instantaneous mind state. This means that, whenever I am situated in front of a subjectively difficult situation, there is always at least an universe (in fact, an infinite multitude) in which I survive.
I am immortal.
If the I I am right now is the result of a history that, like a blind street, leads to only one possible causal result, I will however die. For example, if mine is the universe which, just a minute ago splitted between the I set sail/I stay home alternatives, and if I chose to set sail even if there were many dark clouds at the horizon, then if I persist on my choice for all the time following and if the clouds eventually result into a storm, I will die. At a certain point it will be too late: even if I suddenly change my mind and understand how the situation is risky, I will fail.
This reasonment is flawed: even if it is too late, there will always be a possible universe, however difficult the situation is, in which I make the luckiest choices and manage, in the end, to survive. This is the effect of a selection process: the choices which lead to unfortunate conclusions are eliminated by the subjective death of the parallel universe.
In such kind of situations, most of the universes resulting from the splitting result into immediate end. If the I I am in that unfortunate moment makes a bad choice, the instant straight after that one I will always have a second choice, which will cause a second set of splittings, which will result into N new universes some of which will lead to safety. The splitter-carrier, at that point, will split into all the present universes. His subjectivity will survive only in universes which contain an alive and conscious splitter-carrier. Thus, sometimes, it is the case that we have no true choice. Half of the universe branching structure will be like cut: one side will contain no more splitter-carrier, the other side will. Then, since the subjectivity builds herself onto conscious instants, and since at a certain point an instant will split into two alive/dead instants, the subjectivity will be automatically thrown into the side of the tree containing the "alive" state.
If you see someone die, don't worry: he is not really dead. He has simply chose another way.