I think MWI means more than that. If you figure out how to ensure that Schroedinger's cat is alive or dead, but not both, then it's not MWI. The mangled worlds thing gets rid of some of the worlds, but it most certainly does not get rid of all but one.
The comments below the article evoke my "Read the Sequences" emotions.
But where are those other universes?
Doesn't splitting the universe by making a decision contradict the conservation of energy?
And I feel like: "The conservation of energy is a rule within the universe; it does not apply to splitting universes. Even the notion of 'where' only applies within the universe. And the universe does not split 'when you make a decision'; it keeps splitting all the time regardless of the content of your neurons. Duh! Could we just skip this level of...
I have commented there, and I will quote my comment here. To clarify, I am not anti-MWI, I am pro- experimental evidence.
It seems to me that you strawman a bit the main objection. Indeed, as you say
MWI certainly does predict the existence of a huge number of unobservable worlds. But it doesn’t postulate them. It derives them, from what it does postulate.
However, this does not answer the objection that
MWI is not a good theory because it’s not testable
if you phrase it the way the MWI opponents usually mean it:
...MWI is no more testable than shut-up-an
Some people will vote you down for posting something that's mostly just a link. Personally, I like good, relevant links.
How did you post this so as not to display its vote total?
Votes are displayed only after a post is an hour or so old. Not sure what the actual value is. They are still shown on the sidebar.
Can anybody point me to what choice of interpretation changes? From what I understand it is an interpretation, so there is no difference in what Copenhagen/MWI predict and falsification isn't possible. But for some reason MWI seems to be highly esteemed in LW - why?
Just to be clear, do these multiple-universes have the same qualities as the universe that we inhabit?
I suppose one would only gain a simpler theory, since both theories predict the same thing. So from the perspective of neatness, I'd prefer to have one less postulate. From the perspective of actually solving problems, none of this matters.
Right.
In fact, none of my professors throughout college ever brought up the topic of interpretation, except to say that it was complicated. I suppose that's why I don't sound like a grad student to you; though I can solve problems very well, everything I know about the interpretations of the theory I have gleaned from textbooks and the internet; I have yet to look at specific papers, or study it in depth.
I was in the same boat, having gone through all the undergrad and grad quantum courses without learning anything about ontology, except for the general unease with the Born postulate. This is a common situation. Only Quantum Information courses are sometimes different. And philosophy of physics, but I don't take those seriously.
Part of the reason I want to write more on this is to have an excuse to force myself to learn/study more on the issue; it is still possible to change my mind, after all.
By all means, just make sure you don't have a "favored interpretation" when you start, it will bias you without you noticing.
Though on the issue of reversibility; if we accept the mind is capable of being simulated by a computer, and we had a computer that was made of Toffoli gates (or the quantum version, if such a thing exists), would that mind not then be reversible?
There are arguments that dissipation and irreversibility is essential for consciousness. Whether they are any good will depend on what consciousness is. At this point we have very little to go on beyond "hopefully it can be simulated some day".
Sean Carroll, physicist and proponent of Everettian Quantum Mechanics, has just posted a new article going over some of the common objections to EQM and why they are false. Of particular interest to us as rationalists:
Very reminiscent of the quantum physics sequence here! I find that this distinction between number of entities and number of postulates is something that I need to remind people of all the time.
META: This is my first post; if I have done anything wrong, or could have done something better, please tell me!