Tim May wrote:
>
> The future is not knowable, the past is not disputable.
>
The way I look upon the "Many pasts" idea is (to use a pithy phrase
which I have coined before) that we presently live in a superposition
of pasts containing blue and green T. Rexes. Assuming that someone
someday can actually perform an experiment that definitively answers
the question of what colour a T. Rex is, then reality decoheres with a
certain percentage of observers having blue T. Rexes in their past and
another proportion having green ones etc. Of course all observers will
agree with all observers in their accessible branch (assuming
rationality etc).
Another take on this is that you views on the measurement process
being unidirectional in time is quite correct, however this is
subjective time of the observer. It need not correspond to coordinate
time, as the above example illustrates.
Of course this view is somewhat heretical wrt some other views of the
Multiverse (eg Deutsch's), however seems to have a long history (viz
"many minds interpretation").
Cheers
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A/Prof Russell Standish Director
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Received on Tue Jan 14 2003 - 17:45:35 PST