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50 Years of the Multiverse Interpretation

Posted by Zonk on from the one-of-my-favorite-verses dept.

chinmay7 writes "There is an excellent selection of articles (and quite a few related scientific papers) in a special edition of Nature magazine on interpretations of the multiverse theory. 'Fifty years ago this month Hugh Everett III published his paper proposing a "relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics" — the idea subsequently described as the 'many worlds' or 'multiverse' interpretation. Its impact on science and culture continues. In celebration, a science fiction special edition of Nature on 5 July 2007 explores the symbiosis of science and sf, as exemplified by Everett's hypothesis, its birth, evolution, champions and opponents, in biology, physics, literature and beyond.'

8 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. MWI is cool and all.... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    But I'd like to know what consists a measurement.

    Quantum mechanics does weird stuff when you measure it (probability field of position/velocity).

    When something is measured, it collapses it... What causes the collapse?

    Perhaps consciousness?

    --
    1. Re:MWI is cool and all.... by thc69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thanks for the tip. Seems like a book I'd enjoy.

      The premise of encasing the solar system reminds me of a book I read where earth was encased for, IIRC, a similar reason. I just googled around until I found it. It's Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

      --
      Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
    2. Re:MWI is cool and all.... by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Except for, you know, qualia.

      Going beyond the semantic issue, the GP seemed to be implying that consciousness is something special, some unknown part of nature.

      However, suppose that you ask a person if they are sane. Should you believe their answer? The only means you have to evaluate the experience of your own consciousness is your own consciousness itself. If your consciousness wasn't some supernatural thing but instead was a little program in your brain to fool you into protecting your existence above all else by creating the illusion of being something special and supernatural, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

      Now consider everything that we know about reality. Does the universe work more like a precise machine or more like some transcendental mystical metaphysical drug hallucination? Consider everything we know about the mechanics of the brain. It is organized a lot like and its components are a lot like a computer. Is this a description of a ghost trap or of a computational device?

      The Earth sure does look flat, though, doesn't it?

    3. Re:MWI is cool and all.... by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Myself, I'm a supervenient physicalist, meaning I think that consciousness supervenes on the physical, but cannot be explained by, reference to physical laws alone. Consciousness, and the study of it, inhabits its own scientific sphere that is not reducible to physics or biology or some other "basic" science.

      Well, good for you. Of course, your explanation above is the exact equivalent of someone telling me that they believe in God and thumping "the good book", or that they believe in magic. You may believe what you wish and read as much as you like, but you are asking me to put faith into more than objective reality for no particularly good reason. Religious people will refer me to Bible passages and writings of philosophers, but it's all meaningless because it is all made up by people who have no greater means to objectively study these subjects than I do. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

      Myself, I'm an expert on computational processes (something actually real). I'll keep my faith in reality and avoid explanations that are more complicated than the subject they are describing, especially when there is an explanation that doesn't violate everything we objectively know about reality.

  2. Personal experience of the Multiverse by rjamestaylor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok. I'm going public with this craziness of mine...

    I've observed many times that I "should have" died. It struck me that, perhaps, I did die in an alternate universe, but I (whatever I "is") continue on in at least one of the multiverses. In those multiverses in which "I" experience the death of a close friend or family member... well... that just is how it goes. But they, too, continue in an instance of the multiverse. Perhaps I do not.

    Anyway... "They're coming to take me away, ha ah..."

    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
    1. Re:Personal experience of the Multiverse by lawpoop · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I had a friend and former roommate who was in an apartment fire. He was sleeping in bed when his cat woke him up by clawing at his face. He startled awake and saw that the ceiling was covered in flames. He escaped, certain that he was moments away from death.

      Luckily he made it out alive. But he suffered severe PTSD for a few years afterwards. He would just be walking to the grocery store and be suddenly struck with the terrifying reality that he wasn't walking to the store at all -- this was the final hallucination of his mind moments before he perished in the apartment fire. Instead of his past flashing before his eyes, this was his mind's final, desperate attempt to comfort itself, by creating a reality where he lived out the rest of his life.

      I try not to think about it because it's creepy. If I really start to think about it I get terrified.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    2. Re:Personal experience of the Multiverse by Jerf · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Quantum immortality.

      Note that this is not a very exciting kind of immortality. Especially since a goodly number of worldlines coming from here will produce computronium. At least some of which will simulate you, yes you personally for an unspeakable amount of subjective time (possibly infinite if even one non-zero probability path leads to that outcome), during which you will in some cases experience what can only be described as "as close to a literal heaven as you can get", and in other cases "as close to a literal hell as you can get", and the full range of things in between. If Quantum immortality is "true", there are things worse than death, and we will more or less all get to experience them on some worldline.

      Note further that it is not meaningful to wish that "you" will end up in one of the good cases; if QI is true, all cases lie in your future equally. "You" will end up in the good and the bad and the inbetween, all at once. Perhaps some people consider this a form of escapism, but it is also fairly horrifying if you follow the implications out beyond "In some very real sense, I can not experience death."

    3. Re:Personal experience of the Multiverse by pureevilmatt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That sounds a bit like Donnie Darko.