On 2/21/2025 1:41 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:
Brent,
The Born rule is not something that "should" be obeyed—it is obeyed in
experiments. The question is why. Saying "some things happen and
others don’t" doesn’t answer that.
That's my answer to what probabilities mean. And the Born rule says the
squared amplitudes of Schroedinger's equation should be interpreted as
probabilities.
If amplitudes determine the behavior of quantum systems in every other
context, why would they suddenly become meaningless when it comes to
observer experiences? That’s what you need to justify.
It's justified empirically. You're the one claiming in follows from the
Schroedinger equation. Justify that.
You claim that talking about observers is "obfuscation," but
probability itself is about expectations—what an observer should
expect to see given the structure of the theory. If multiple observers
look at the same SG detector, yes, they all see UP. But why was that
outcome observed with probability a² rather than any other distribution?
Because the Born rule. But according you it's because somehow
decoherence produces a bush or identical worlds for each outcome.
Ignoring that question doesn’t make it go away.
Ignoring that having ten people in room looking at the result doesn't
increase it's probability doesn't help. So where is your explanation of
how the bush of worlds gets produced?
The challenge for any interpretation—whether MWI, collapse, or
anything else—is to explain why experiments follow the Born rule.
Dismissing the problem as circular without engaging with why
amplitudes might determine observer frequencies is avoiding the issue,
not resolving it.
We've know for over a century that the amplitudes determine the
frequencies, that was Born's insight. But that's just stating the Born
rule. Science can only answer "Why?" questions in terms of deeper
theory. So far none has been forthcoming.
Brent
--
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/72f3aafe-7d82-4916-9667-18cb20342806%40gmail.com.
