On 1/17/2013 4:32 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
Hi all,
Naive question...
Not being a physicists, I only have a pop-science level of understanding of the MWI. I
imagine the multi-verse as a tree, where each time there is more than one possible
quantum state we get a branch. I imagine my consciousness moving down the tree.
Suppose Mary performs the Schrodinger's cat experiment in her house and Joe does the
same in his house. They both keep the animals in the boxes and don't take a peak. Don't
tell PETA. They meet for a coffe in a nearby coffeeshop.
So now we have four possible universes where Mary and Joe can meet. But from the double
slit experiment we know that the cats are both still dead+alive in the current universe.
Right? So are Mary and Joe meeting in the fours universes at the same time?
Cheers
Telmo.
The short answer is yes. But it's not four universes, it's one universe that is a
superposition of four states. The idealization is that the cats are isolated so that it
is only when a live/dead measurement is made the universe splits. But a problem with MWI
is that this depends on the basis. Choosing a live/dead basis is possible (in the
idealization) but mathematically any other basis is equally valid and in those other bases
there are still superpositions. So really the problem of the live/dead cat is pushed off
onto the problem of selecting the basis: why is the live/dead basis priveleged?
Brent
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