[ExI] Many Worlds (was: A Simulation Argument)

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Mon Jan 14 18:47:10 UTC 2008


At 06:06 PM 1/14/2008 +0100, Serafino wrote:

>If you read point Q8 (When does Schroedinger's
>cat split?), of this MWI faq here
>http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm ,
>it seems that you have two 'worlds'
>inside the *sealed* box (cat alive, cat
>dead), but the 'world' outside the box
>is still one, since the (eventual)
>onlooker is (eventually) split into
>two copies *only* when the box is opened
>and they are altered by the states of the cat.

It might be worth considering that "worlds" split *at the instant 
when the unpredictable/uncaused quantum decay occurs* (which triggers 
release of the cyanide), so there are many worlds with a cat that 
died at different clock ticks, but the human "observer" can't 
distinguish them when she opens the box at the agreed mean time of 
electron emission (or whatever) that yields a theoretical p of 0.5. 
Well, maybe there's a detector inside the box that registered instant 
of cyanide release. Each splitting carried a version of the human 
observer with it, surely.

Damien Broderick 




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