Undergrad Nima Arkani-Hamed's opinion on Many Worlds?

[Suekdccia]

TL;DR

Nima Arkani-Hamed's opinion on Many Worlds?

I am writing a blog about physics and one of the sections is about the different interpretations of quantum mechanics and some of its supporters.

I was wondering what was the opinion of the physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed towards the Many Worlds interpretation...

I ask this because I found somewhat contradictory situations about his opinion on the subject. On the one hand, he is open to the possibility of the multiverse being true (and he does not make distinctions, so there is no reason why he would reject a many-world like model) and he also made a few talks where he proposed that there is no wavefunction collapse () a key assunption in many worlds...

However, in this reddit post () a user indicated that he thought that physicist Arkani Hamed said in an interview that Many Worlds interpretation was true but "obviously not in real life"...

It seems a bit confusing since I thought he was a strong Many Worlds supporter (and now I am not sure) so I find strange that he said that this interpretation is obviously not correct in the real life. Is he open to the possibility of it being true? Does he support it?

 

[StevieTNZ]

Sounds like the reddit user needs professional help, to be honest. Also, the claim by the user doesn't necessarily reflect fact (note your use of 'he thought that'). You can think a lot of things - whether they're true or not is another story. I suggest looking for better references to back up claims/support your questions.

 

[Haborix]

I don't have much to contribute to an answer to the question. I will just say that it seems to me a mistake to take someone's view about the multiverse (i.e. a view about cosmology) and draw any conclusions about their view on many-world interpretations (i.e. a view about quantum interpretations).

 

[StevieTNZ]

The OP could always go straight to the source and ask this particular person what his view on the many-worlds interpretation is. He'd be in a better position to answer.

 

[StevieTNZ]

@Suekdccia - I've just seen the guidance provided by @PeterDonis in relation to the thread from General Discussions - https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/nima-arkani-hameds-opinion-on-many-worlds.1047067/post-6819085

I think what PeterDonis suggests is appropriate. Do you know how to find and review the literature Nima has published? Perhaps we can help with that, if you don't fancy contacting Nima himself.

 

[Demystifier]

I see nothing strange in the idea that MWI is true physically, but not in real life. Many ideas in physics are naturally thought of as true physically, but not in real life. Here are some examples:
- Behavior of matter, including the behavior of human beings, is not governed by goals in the future.
- Behavior of matter is neither good nor bad, it doesn't have any ethical value.
- Matter governed by deterministic or probabilistic laws of physics does not have free will. (Deterministic behavior is not free, while random behavior cannot have will.)