2005-07-24: The Many Worlds Interpretation

[DrCox]

Will the chat be posted online? Because 7am is early.

[Robert]

Will the chat be posted online? Because 7am is early.

The previous 24 hours of chat is preserved for your review when you enter the chat, although I may reduce this in the future. I'll also attach a transcript of the chat to the first post of this thread so, unless things go horribly wrong with the new chat room, you should be able to access the chat transcript within a couple of days of the chat.

[Robert]

I was writing notes on the back of a paper that I was reading about the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) and noticed the backside of a staple at the upper right corner that was holding the papers together. I reached over and twisted one of the prongs of the staple to a 45 degree angle from its original position. It seems like such a waste that the whole universe was replicated just because I choose to twist the stable and another version of me did not bend the staple. This seems unlikely to affect what a micro-organism might be doing under a rock on a planet in a far away galaxy. Why should that micro-organism also be replicated into two copies of itself, one for each world, based on my decision to bend the staple prong by 45 degrees.

According to MWI (at least one version) another copy of me in another world bent the staple, not 45 degrees, but rather 44 degrees. Another bent it 46 degrees and yet another 90 degrees. One version may have even twisted it until it broke while laughing like a lunatic! In the universe where I did not bend the staple, I might 1 second later or 5 minutes later decide to bend it. So for each fork in the MWI tree it would appear there are a nearly infinite number of branches at every fundamental unit of time. So again, why should there be so many copies of this micro-organism based on my rather insignificant action of bending a staple. How can it be so?

Perplexed,
--Robert

[Robert]

An excellent resource I use for looking up information is Wikipedia. It has an abundance of information on the Many-worlds interpretation with many links to related topics.

[DrCox]

This was a really good topic, you think it could be done again, to give people a chance to come and talk?

[Robert]

This was a really good topic, you think it could be done again, to give people a chance to come and talk?

The next chat session has been posted! The topic overlaps with the Many-Worlds Interpretation of QM, so should be interesting.