LizR wrote:
On 13 April 2015 at 17:16, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au
<mailto:bhkell...@optusnet.com.au>> wrote:
LizR wrote:
Does the MWI predict an infinite number of branches from any
given measurement? I'm not sure (from FOR) that the MWI predicts
branches at all, so much as differentiation within a continuum?
Maybe you could expand on this. Why (to keep it simple) would a
quantum experiment with two possible outcomes not reproduce the
correct probabilities in the MWI? (Or is that a special case
where it would?)
No, MWI does not predict an infinite number of branches for any
measurement. It predicts a number of branches equal to the number of
possible distinct outcomes for the measurement.
So how does the MWI deal with a measurement with a 3/4 probability of
outcome 1 and a 1/4 probability of outcome 2? This was Larry Niven's
objection to many worlds back around the time he wrote "All the myriad
ways" and it seems to me that someone else would have noticed it in the
intervening 50 years (or whatever) ! How come anyone takes MWI seriously
if it's actually supposed to work like this?
The expansion of the wave function in the einselected basis of the
measurement operator has certain coefficients. The probabilities are the
absolute magnitudes of these squared. That is the Born Rule. MWI
advocates try hard to derive the Born Rule from MWI, but they have
failed to date. I think they always will fail because, as has been
pointed out, the separate worlds of the MWI that are required before you
can derive a probability measure already assume the Born Rule. The
argument is at best circular, and probably even incoherent.
I do not take MWI seriously.
Bruce
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