I had an incredibly frustrating conversation this morning trying to explain the idea of quantum immortality to someone whose understanding of MWI begins and ends at pop sci fi movies. I think I've identified the main issue that I wasn't covering in enough depth (continuity of identity between near-identical realities) but I was wondering whether anyone has ever faced this problem before, and whether anyone has (or knows where to find) a canned 5 minute explanation of it.
I think that's much too egalitarian. As best as I can tell people vary tremendously in their ability and inclination to grasp certain topics with minimal preparation. What you say is true of the majority but not of everyone. The value to the student of popular accounts also varies tremendously. What you say seems to be true if you pair the worst students with the worst books.
Hm.. this is the second time today that I posted a comment based on a misreading (see the correction above). Makes me wonder about the quality of the work I did during the rest of the day.
Regarding the pop-science approach to physics, I read a lot of such books as a teenager. Since then, I've studied several areas of physics with real mathematical rigor, some in university courses and others just out of curiosity, and in retrospect I must say that the popular books had failed to give me any accurate understanding whatsoever. All I got was either confusion ... (read more)