study guides
study guide for superdomain05d ["universe"]
Material from: Vaidman, L. (2022). Why the many-worlds interpretation? Retrieved 3/23/25 from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.04618
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1. Know whether or not the author finds the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) by far the best interpretation of quantum mechanics. Know whether or not, as a scientist, the author feels he must always be skeptical about his beliefs, so he would also consider the workshop as a success if it will demonstrate weaknesses of the MWI and show why the MWI should not be accepted as a leading interpretation. Know whether or not we ever observe two simultaneous detections of a single photon by two detectors.
2. Know whether or not, when the wave packet is present in place B, everyone, independently of their preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics, should agree about the following description of place B at the time. Know whether or not, by placing a detector shortly before location A, we change the reality in B to probability 0 or 1. Know whether or not only the MWI avoids action at a distance in the physical universe. Know whether or not the MWI is the most economical quantum theory regarding the theory’s laws.
3. Know whether or not, although the self-location probability postulate explains the observed statistics, it does so without introducing objective chance in Nature. Know whether or not the MWI brings back determinism to scientific description. Know whether or not we, as agents capable of experiencing only a single world, have an illusion of randomness. Know whether or not the paradoxes of the quantum theory are resolved in the framework of the MWI interpretation. Know whether or not the MWI provides simple answers to almost all quantum paradoxes.
4. Know whether or not Schrödinger’s Cat is absurd in one world, but unproblematic when it represents one world with a live cat and a multitude of worlds with the cat which died at different times of detection of the radioactive decay. Know whether or not it seems that [Einstein] would adopt the MWI, because it resolves two main difficulties Einstein had with quantum mechanics: randomness and action at a distance. Know whether or not the paradoxical behavior of Bell-type experiments disappears when quantum measurement does not have a single outcome.
5. Know whether or not the paradox of the amount of information transferred in teleportation is resolved by the nonlocality of worlds and an observation that the only information remaining to be transferred after the local Bell measurement is the identity of the world we are in [2]. Know whether or not, up until … (our present) there is no difference in our experience between the single world of the universe in which quantum mechanics includes collapses at every quantum measurement and the corresponding world of the MWI universe. Know whether or not there is no difference in the description of the past between the MWI and the theory with collapse at every measurement.
6. Know whether or not, while in the collapsing universe there is a diachronic identity of the world towards the past and future, in the MWI, there is no diachronic identity towards the future. Know whether or not we understand that chancy events are our illusion in a deterministic physical universe due to our construction which does not allow the experience of superpositions. Know whether or not we care for all future parallel worlds according to their “measure of existence,” which is proportional to the objective probabilities of the corresponding possible collapsing worlds. Know whether or not the “world” in [the author’s] MWI is not a physical entity.
7. Know whether or not a world is the totality of macroscopic objects: stars, cities, people, grains of sand, etc., in a definite classically described state. Know whether or not the MWI is “The Theory of the Universal Wave Function”, but the starting point in our description is our world, not the universal wave function. Know whether or not the MWI believer, being aware of recent quantum measurements, has information about some parallel worlds. Know whether or not the theory of our brain is not developed enough, but the hope is that the wave function of some collective variables of its constituents in three-dimensional space directly corresponds to our experience.
8. Know whether or not the three-dimensional wave function of the collective variables of macroscopic objects is the bridge between the world wave function and our experience. Know whether or not the MWI is a deterministic theory, but the determinism is manifested on the level of all worlds together. Know whether or not the complete knowledge of the wave function of our world, prior to a quantum measurement, does not specify a particular outcome. Know whether or not the observer does not have a concept of probability of an outcome…but she has a legitimate concept of probability of self-location in a world with a particular outcome. Know whether or not the reluctance of a human to accept the MWI is natural. Know whether or not it is misleading to view the universe as a multitude of (countable) classical worlds created by a magician.
"As Below, So Above"
