[extropy-chat] Is Many Worlds testable?

[Damien Broderick]

At 06:33 PM 12/30/2006 -0500, JKC wrote:

>Near as I can tell he is saying that if an observer sees a particle hit
>the large side of a chamber he knows he's not living in a universe where the
>particle hits a much smaller target; but my interpretation can't be right
>because he has found all sorts of profound philosophical implications from
>that mundane fact.

I think what Serafino said is that a conscious observer, seeing the 
particle hit the wall rather than the inner plate, knows that the 
"collapse of the state vector" or the "world divergence" happened 
*already*, in the past--and therefore consciousness was not required 
to bring it about. Thus, mind is ruled out as an operator (assuming 
it is not able to affect the past, a further complication that is not 
addressed by most discussions on this topic). This result will come 
as no great shock to extropes, but plenty of people still seem to 
cling to the notion.

Serafino will correct me if I'm wrong.

And thank you for the kind words, John, and for the courtesy of your 
responses--even when they are sharp in tone. :)

Damien Broderick