RE: Miscellaneous ideas, for what they're worth.

From: Gilles HENRI <Gilles.Henri.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 15:55:26 +0100

>Russell,
>A 'process' requires 'time'. 'Time' is a subset of what you call
>'splitting'. The wavefunction is undifferentiated. It is a single
>wavefunction representing all possible states 'superimposed'.
>James
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Russell Standish [SMTP:R.Standish.domain.name.hidden]
>> Sent: 01 February 1999 23:00
>> To: james.higgo.domain.name.hidden
>> Subject: Re: Miscellaneous ideas, for what they're worth.
>>
>> >
>> > Russell, you disagree with most of us if you think that the act of
>> making
>> > ameasurement causes universes to split in MWI. On the contrary, the
>> > universe 'splits' at every opportunty. Everything possible exists in
>> MWI.
>> >
>>
>>
>> I don't think so. Yes I agree that everything is possible in MWI. At
>> each point in time there is a wave function that describes the
>> probability or measure of each possibility. However, in order to
>> 'split' (ie differentiate the possibilities) requires a process - that
>> process is conciousness, which is performing measurements. Whether
>> these measurements happen continuously or not is another matter.

ok, but Russell is right in that the apparence of splitting is
fundamentally due to the fact that consciousness does some kind of
projection of the wavefunction over some macroscopic subcomponent. The
apparence of splitting is due to the properties of consciouness that
behaves macroscopically, like any measurement apparatus (i.e. without
interacting with other components of the wavefunction).


Gilles
Received on Tue Feb 02 1999 - 07:54:54 PST