Re: "spooky action at a distance"

From: John Collins <johnhcollins.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 12:48:36 -0000

Do we live in a universe in which future coin tosses will invariably result
in "heads," or one in which a mixture of results will occur?
Of course, we live in both, but the latter constitutes a numerically much
larger class of universes; one would imagine it would be the same with
physical laws, including those governing "wave-function collapse": That some
laws would have a much larger "measure", and would always be the ones we
discover.
-Chris C
----- Original Message -----
From: Hal Finney <hal.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: "spooky action at a distance"


> This list is dedicated to exploring the implications of the prospect
> that all universes exist. According to this principle, universes
> exist with all possible laws of physics. It follows that universes
> exist which follow the MWI; and universes exist where only one branch
> is real and where the other branches are eliminated. Universes exist
> where the transactional interpretation is true, and where Penrose's
> "objective reduction" happens. I'm tempted to even say that universes
> exist where the Copenhagen interpretation is true, but that seems to be
> more a refusal to ask questions than a genuine interpretation.
>
> Therefore it is somewhat pointless to argue about whether we are in one
> or another of these universes. In fact, I would claim that we are
> in all of these, at least all that are not logically inconsistent or
> incompatible with the data. That is, our conscious experience spans
> multiple universes; we are instantiated equally and equivalently in
> universes which have different laws of physics, but where the differences
> are so subtle that they have no effect on our observations.
>
> It may be that at some future time, we can perform an experiment which
> will provide evidence to eliminate or confirm some of these possible QM
> interpretations. At that time, our consciousness will differentiate,
> and we will go on in each of the separate universes, with separate
> consciousness.
>
> It is still useful to discuss whether the various interpretations work
> at all, and whether they are in fact compatible with our experimental
> results. But to go beyond that and to try to determine which one is
> "true" is, according to the multiverse philosophy, an empty exercise.
> All are true; all are instantiated in the multiverse, and we live in
> all of them.
>
> Hal
>
Received on Sat Nov 15 2003 - 07:51:09 PST