On Sat, Jan 4, 2025 at 7:18 PM Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
*> since everything happens it's not so clear what it means that
> probabilities are equal to the squared amplitude. Probability of what?
> Not probability of a value happening. Probability of finding oneself in a
> particular world? *
>
*Yes. That wasn't so unclear was it. *
> * > If it's probabilistic then it must follow Born's rule by Gleanson's
> theorem." But then that's assuming it's probabilistic **not just
> Schroedinger's equation.*
>
*No. If Many World is correct then ontological randomness can not exist but
epistemological randomness certainly can and certainly does. Even in
classical physics epistemological randomness exists whenever you lack the
information needed to make an exact prediction, that's why you can't
predict a coin flip or a roulette wheel . *
*Laplace's demon, which has knowledge of all initial conditions and has
infinite computational capacity, does not need to think about "worlds" but
can just contemplate how the quantum wave function of the entire universe
evolves. Unfortunately we are not as smart or as knowledgeable as Laplace's
demon, so we need to talk about worlds. *
*For example: a box with Schrodinger's cat inside it, the environment, and
you, are all quantum objects entangled together, so there are not 3
separate wave functions but only one. After one hour there is a 50% chance
of the cat surviving, that means the quantum wave consists of { (a live
cat, the environment the live cat is in, and you observing the live cat) +
( a dead cat, the environment the dead cat is in, and you observing the
dead cat) } . After one hour you are either in the dead cat environment or
the live cat environment with a 50-50 probability, but you lack the
information needed to know which one and will only obtain it when you open
the box.*
> *> *
> *...in which case why not just bite the bullet and says it's the
> probability that a particular world exists.*
>
*Because then you have to explain why Schrodinger's equation suddenly stops
working. And then you have to explain exactly what a "measurement" is and
why Schrodinger's equation** treats you very differently than any other
quantum object.*
*Incidentally, the very first post sent to the Everything List was sent by
the late great Hal Finney (he was cryonically frozen in 2014 and became
Alcor's 128'th patient); his message was sent on January 16, 1998 and
entitled "Infinite universe and many worlds".*
*Infinite universe and many worlds*
<https://riceissa.github.io/everything-list-1998-2009/0000.html>
*John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis
<https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>*
fhf
>
>
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