Does the MWI require "creation" of multiple worlds?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the interpretation of the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics, specifically addressing whether the concept of "creation" of multiple worlds is valid within this framework. Participants explore theoretical implications, semantics, and the nature of wave function evolution without collapse.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants argue that MWI does not involve the creation of worlds, as the unitary evolution of the wave function only leads to entanglement rather than creation or destruction.
  • Others suggest that the transition from a single state to multiple states post-measurement can be interpreted as a form of "creation" of worlds, though this may be viewed as semantic.
  • A participant mentions that the concept of multiple worlds may depend on the observer's perspective, with one world of experience before measurement and two after.
  • Some contributions reference the idea that the notion of "many worlds" is an interpretive assumption stemming from decoherence, rather than a literal creation of worlds.
  • There is mention of alternative views, such as defining macroscopic states that do not require splitting, suggesting that the universe is always in multiple states rather than splitting into them.
  • Several participants express agreement that the discussion may hinge on semantics, with some advocating for the view that there is fundamentally one world experienced in different ways.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on whether MWI entails the creation of multiple worlds, with some arguing it is semantic while others maintain that the interpretation involves distinct worlds resulting from measurement. No consensus is reached on the nature of these worlds or the implications of their existence.

Contextual Notes

Discussions reference various interpretations and philosophical implications of MWI, including the role of decoherence and the observer's perspective. Limitations in definitions and assumptions regarding the nature of wave functions and measurements are acknowledged but not resolved.

  • #181
stevendaryl said:
That's the assumption that our world is "typical". So you're both making that assumption and denying it, it seems to me.
No.

In common English, to call something typical means that one has seen many similar things of the same kind, and only a few were very different from the typical instance. So one can call a run of coin flips typical if its frequency of heads is around 50% and atypical if it was a run where the frequency is outside the $5\sigma$ threshold required, e.g., for proofs of a new particle (see https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31126/ ), with a grey zone in between.

This is the sense I am using the term. All this happens within a single world. It is not the world that is typical but a particular event or sequence of events.

But I have no idea what it should means for the single world we have access to to be ''typical''. To give it a meaning one would have to compare it with speculative, imagined, by us unobservable, other worlds. Thus calling a world typical is at the best completely subjective and speculative, and at the worst, completely meaningless.
 
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  • #182
A. Neumaier said:
No.

In common English, to call something typical means that one has seen many similar things of the same kind, and only a few were very different from the typical instance. So one can call a run of coin flips typical if its frequency of heads is around 50% and atypical if it was a run where the frequency is outside the $5\sigma$ threshold required, e.g., for proofs of a new particle (see https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31126/ ), with a grey zone in between.

This is the sense I am using the term. All this happens within a single world. It is not the world that is typical but a particular event or sequence of events.

But I have no idea what it should means for the single world we have access to to be ''typical''. To give it a meaning one would have to compare it with speculative, imagined, by us unobservable, other worlds. Thus calling a world typical is at the best completely subjective and speculative, and at the worst, completely meaningless.
Just remember, hair-splitting is irrelevant to world-splitting.

Funnily enough I can understand Steven's language in what appears, admittedly to my vague sort of mind, to be perfectly well-defined terms. Personally I translate "typical" into something useful about confidence limits.
 
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  • #183
stevendaryl said:
There is no collapse in Many Worlds.
aren't the many worlds theoretical-
 
  • #184
Derek P said:
? @StevenDarryl was describing the smooth evolution of the emergent worlds. It was not even remotely a reformulation of MWI.

You may believe so but MWI asserts exactly the opposite.
See this article - but only if you don't mind Vongher's provocative style.
that article above--See this article--- - fails simply because the use of Wikipedia makes research infotainment. Plus a lot of thought experiments. Neumaier has it spot on-
 

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