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Many worlds is testable, though I wouldn't recommend it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide Edit: :)
by gaika 18y ago
Many worlds is testable, though I wouldn't recommend it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide
Edit: :)
- hugh 18y agoI don't buy quantum immortality as a necessary consequence of many-worlds. There are some rather dodgy steps in the logic -- in particular the one that says that "you" can't find your personal experiences going down a branch where your existence gets terminated. Surely somebody has to be there to subjectively experience having a bullet blast a hole in their skull? Personally I think if you tried that, even if many-worlds is true, you'd almost certainly wind up dead.
- gaika 18y agoThat "you" can be you in other people's mind as described by Hofstadter in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop
- aswanson 18y agoCan't this experiment just be reduced to a succession of observations that are extraordinarily improbable? Why sex it up with the suicide attempts?
- gaika 18y agoThe key is to link up observer with the experiment outcomes so you can only observe unlikely possibilities (and be dead in the rest).
- aswanson 18y agoUnderstood, but you could also set up an apparatus that simply observes a large region for a long period of time without killing anyone, watching for highly improbable events. Since each observer also lives their total lifespan, you get a much higher probability of a given observer observing a succession of improbable occurences.
- gaika 18y agoThat what reporters are for :) If you read the news you will see an endless stream of highly unusual events, but unfortunately that doesn't prove anything.
- aswanson 18y agoTouche. :) But in the same vein, what would a series of failed suicide attempts prove that the mentioned apparatus could not?
- gaika 18y agoAny machine that you build will produce expected results, up to 10^-15 precision with current hardware. Failed suicide attempt is unlikely and provides evidence towards many worlds as a theory and not just interpretation.
- aswanson 18y agoSorry, by apparatus I mean any method of observing a large body of matter or space that exhibit quantum behaviour (i.e. anything), not necessarily a physical machine. We are just looking for a series of highly improbable quantum state transitions.
- gaika 18y agoDoesn't matter, any method of observation you choose will produce expected results. Unless you observe yourself, where you will not be able to observe expected results because you're dead.
- aswanson 18y agoThink of each observer attempting to push a rock into their palm and having it appear on the other side, without enough force to push it through. Think of everyone on the planet attempting this simultaneously, thousands of times. If the rock disappears and reappears on the other side for one observer, doesn't this accomplish the same thing, at least for that observer, that the suicide attempt does?