On Sun, 28 Nov 1999, Doug Jones wrote:
> Jacques wrote:
> > If "various polls of leading physicists have concluded that, when
> > pressed for an answer, more believe MWI than anything else", I would like
> > to see the results of those polls myself. Reference, please.
>
> Michael Clive Price refers to such polls in his Many-Worlds FAQ
> [...]
> Amongst the "Yes, I think MWI is true" crowd listed are Stephen Hawking
> and Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman. Gell-Mann and
> Hawking recorded reservations with the name "many-worlds", but not with
> the theory's content. Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg is also mentioned
> as a many-worlder, although the suggestion is not when the poll was
> conducted, presumably before 1988 (when Feynman died). The only "No, I
> don't accept MWI" named is Penrose.
> Anybody know anything about Price's sources for this?
I knew about Price's claim. I don't trust it, and several of
those mentioned have either changed their views and now reject MWI (as I
think Hawking did), or never endorsed it (as if the poll was faked). The
reason I'm skeptical is that there is nothing in the writings of either
Feynmann or Gell-Mann showing acceptance of the MWI.
If Feynmann was ever a MWIer, it must have been late in life. In
his 'QED', he was not.
G-M has written a lot about 'consistent histories'. It is
possible to interpret his writings on this to indicate that he is a MWIer,
but it is also possible to draw the opposite conclusion. The 'consistent
histories interpretation' claims both Copenhagen and Everett as sources of
inspiration.
He is either unable, or unwilling, to give a straight answer on
the MWI. My opinion is that if he wants to play games to avoid "coming
out of the closet as an MWIer", as some MWIers think, and leave the
burden of the fight for equality to young grad students like me who are
willing to take the risk for TRUTH despite the hardship on my career, he
ought to go stick his head where the sun don't shine.
- - - - - - -
Jacques Mallah (jqm1584.domain.name.hidden)
Graduate Student / Many Worlder / Devil's Advocate
"I know what no one else knows" - 'Runaway Train', Soul Asylum
My URL:
http://pages.nyu.edu/~jqm1584/
Received on Sun Nov 28 1999 - 16:22:48 PST