On Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 9:58 PM Bruce Kellett <[email protected]> wrote:
*> one somehow has to relate the amplitudes of the wave function basis > vectors to the probabilities. * *True. And if the amplitude of the wave function of an electron at a point is 1/√2 (or 0.5 + 0.5i since it's a complex function) and if you take the square of the absolute value of that amplitude then you get 0.5, which an experimentalist will note is also the probability of observing the electron at that point. * * > MWI does assume that the wavefunction is a real physical object, * *It seems to me that you're OK with assuming that the wave function is a "real physical object", whatever that precisely means, as long as it predicts something that you're comfortable with, but as soon as it makes you uncomfortable it suddenly becomes unreal and you declare that people should stop believing what the equation is saying. * *It's interesting that in the modern physics community the long debate about whether at the deepest level things are made of particles or waves is largely over, and waves have won. The vast majority of new papers about fundamental physics are about Quantum Field Theory not particles; and even in papers where they do mention particles, nearly all the calculations they do to figure out what they will do involve quantum waves and fields, not other particles. Let me put it another way, particles are what we observe but if you want to calculate what particle will result when particle X interacts with particle Y your calculations will almost entirely be about fields and waves. * *> And since the Schrodinger equation is deterministic, introducing a > probability interpretation is problematic.* *Many Worlds has no problem with that. Let's say you calculate with Schrodinger's Equation and the Born Rule and figure out there will be a 75% chance you will see the electron move left and a 25% chance you will see the electron move right. You set up your equipment to actually perform the experiment, you then put on a blindfold and push the "on" button. If Many Worlds is correct there is a 75% chance you are now in the "electron moves left" world, but with the blindfold still on you have no way of being certain. However if somebody gave you even odds and bet you $10 that you were in the "electron moves right" world you would be wise to take that bet. And if you repeated that experiment many times you could make an arbitrarily large amount of money. * *John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* rmt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv1qofHd1Z2D8_XJWu8Ag2Guh2fD0%3Di7VJ40xt-s%3DJZKjQ%40mail.gmail.com.
