Further to: Science writer: Many Worlds (multiverse) as a fantasy, physicist verging on nihilism, Rob Sheldon notes,
What I find so contradictory about MWI (the QM interpretation that Ball unloads his frustration on), is that it assumes that the wavefunction splits at every “decision”, without taking into account that a wavefunction is non-local and global. This was the view of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, which didn’t get a mention in Ball’s list. Wigner said that the final outcome is fixed, not because of parallel universes, but because the universe is being observed by an outside observer. For all Ball knows (and that includes physicists too), the wavefunction is completely determined elsewhere in the universe, and the “split” we calculate here was completely determined and hence not a split at all, and MWI collapses down to ordinary reality.
“Oh no, that was Einstein’s “hidden variable” theory which was disproven in the 70’s!”, a true believer is likely to object. No, because the “hidden variable” theory replaces an observer with static existence.
Wigner didn’t promote some sort of “Einstein locality”, he promoted a person observing the Universe. And that makes all the difference.
Which is probably why his theory didn’t get even an honorable mention.
Presumably, any unobservable cosmic-level weirdness is better.
See, for example, this comment:
MWI follows inevitable as a deduction from the principles of quantum mechanics …
See also: As if the multiverse wasn’t bizarre enough …meet Many Worlds
and
But who needs reality-based thinking anyway? Not the new cosmologists
Follow UD News at Twitter!
Of note: at the 8:30 minute mark of the following video, Schrodinger’s cat and Wigner’s Friend are highlighted:
Wigner also stated:
Of related note to the preceding Wigner ‘consciousness’ quotes, it is interesting to note that many of Wigner’s insights have now been experimentally verified and are also now fostering a ‘second revolution’ in quantum mechanics,,,
That Wigner’s insights into the foundations of quantum mechanics are driving ‘the Second Quantum Revolution’ is certainly powerful evidence substantiating Wigner’s claim that ‘consciousness is the ultimate universal reality’
Of supplemental note:
Here is Wigner commenting on what I believe is the key experiment that led Wigner to his Nobel Prize winning work on quantum symmetries,,,
i.e. In the experiment the ‘world’ (i.e. the universe) does not have a ‘privileged center’. Yet strangely, the conscious observer does exhibit a ‘privileged center’. This is since the ‘matrix’, which determines which vector will be used to describe the particle in the experiment, is ‘observer-centric’ in its origination! Thus explaining Wigner’s dramatic statement, “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness.”
Dr. Sheldon is absolutely correct. Nonlocality is the rule, not the exception. A multiverse breaks nonlocality by virtue of having multiple local systems. ‘Universe’ implies many in ONE for a reason. The ONENESS of the universe is why we have nonlocal principles such as the conservation of energy, spin, etc. Personally, I believe that even gravity is a nonlocal phenomenon.
Sheldon is wrong as usual.
No. Sheldon is wrong. MWI is based on an superposition of entangled macroscopic collections of atoms. Entanglement is non-local by definition. I agree wavefunctions are non-local but MWI is a non-local idea. The outer product of the particle state and the observer apparatus is a non-local description. The physical observation interaction between the observer and observed particles is local, following the usual, well-tested rules of quantum field theory (e.g. QED etc.)
No. There is no evidence that observers, big or little, visible or invisible, have the power to collapse wavefunctions. The wavefunction collapse has never been observed nor well-defined, and “observer” is not well-defined in non-MWI interpretations. “To observe” is only well-defined in MWI.
Hypothesizing an invisible observer is non-parsimonious and does not solve the alleged problem because there’s no evidence observers have this super-power to cause violations of Schrodinger’s equation far away by looking.
Again: no proof any observers, big or little, visible or invisible, have the power to collapse wavefunctions. What problem does this solve? It assumes what we’re arguing about.
Sheldon is begging the question: we ask “Where’s your observation of wavefunction collapse” and Sheldon presents a claim that assumes his hypothesis is already true as evidence that his hypothesis is true.
Diogenes:
Entanglement is an experimental observation that proves nonlocality. Superposition, by contrast, is just an interpretation. It cannot be falsified. It excludes experimental verification by definition. It’s an ad hoc, ad ignoramus interpretation of the wave function because physicists have no clue as to why particle interactions are probabilistic. The blind is leading the blind.
How many worlds did I create today, give or take? A dozen? A few trillion? How about my dog?
Do I wake up in the same world I go to sleep in? Is my dog the same dog in the morning? Maybe the me that takes a leak in the middle of the night isn’t the same me who went at bedtime?
Ppolish or maybe u have a zillion you’s each taking a leak. Can you imagine the amount of urine when all of our zillion counterparts go to the bathroom.
All Knowing God renders MWI useless. Omniscient & Omnipresent, God knew/knows which slit fcol.
MWI is ignorant Atheist crud sorry.