Thank you, this is exactly the type of linking that I was looking for. Unfortunately, the FAQ that you so kindly provided isn’t providing the rigor that I’m looking for. In fact, for the energy conservation portion, I think (although I’m by no means certain) that the argument has been simplified to the point that the explanation being offered isn’t true.
I guess what I’d really like is an explanation of MWI that actually ties the math and the explanations together closely. (I think that I’m expressing myself poorly, so I’m sorry if my point seems muddled, but I’d actually like to really understand what Eliezer seems to find so obvious.)
“the law conservation of energy is based on observations within each world. All observations within each world are consistent with conservation of energy, therefore energy is conserved.”
Conservation of energy takes place within worlds, not between them.
FWIW, I first learned about the MWI from: Paul C.W. Davies’ book: “Other Worlds”—waay back in the 1980s. It was quite readable—and one of the better popular books on QM from that era. It succeeded in conveying the “Occam” advantage of the theory.
OK, if that’s really what it takes I guess I’ll leave it at that. But I don’t see the loss of generality from conservation laws operating on any closed system as a good thing, and I can’t understand how weighting a world (that is claimed to actually exist) by a probability measure (that I’ve seen claimed to be meant as observed frequencies) is actually a reasonable thing to do.
I would actually like to understand this, and I suspect strongly that I’m missing something basic. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to make my ignorance suitable for public consumption, but if anyone would like to help enlighten me privately, I’d be delighted.
Ok, but this isn’t actually making the case for MWI better to my mind. Instead of mass and energy being conserved in any closed system it is now only conserved on closed systems up to the “size” of a “world”. I don’t see how this loss of generality (especially since “worlds” tend to “split” into things that must now be treated independently despite coming from the same source) is a good thing.
I actually want to understand this correctly and I strongly suspect that I’m missing something basic. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the time to express my ignorance well in a public forum, but if anyone is willing to discuss privately, I’d be delighted.
Thank you, this is exactly the type of linking that I was looking for. Unfortunately, the FAQ that you so kindly provided isn’t providing the rigor that I’m looking for. In fact, for the energy conservation portion, I think (although I’m by no means certain) that the argument has been simplified to the point that the explanation being offered isn’t true.
I guess what I’d really like is an explanation of MWI that actually ties the math and the explanations together closely. (I think that I’m expressing myself poorly, so I’m sorry if my point seems muddled, but I’d actually like to really understand what Eliezer seems to find so obvious.)
The first sentence lays out the issue:
“the law conservation of energy is based on observations within each world. All observations within each world are consistent with conservation of energy, therefore energy is conserved.”
Conservation of energy takes place within worlds, not between them.
FWIW, I first learned about the MWI from: Paul C.W. Davies’ book: “Other Worlds”—waay back in the 1980s. It was quite readable—and one of the better popular books on QM from that era. It succeeded in conveying the “Occam” advantage of the theory.
OK, if that’s really what it takes I guess I’ll leave it at that. But I don’t see the loss of generality from conservation laws operating on any closed system as a good thing, and I can’t understand how weighting a world (that is claimed to actually exist) by a probability measure (that I’ve seen claimed to be meant as observed frequencies) is actually a reasonable thing to do.
I would actually like to understand this, and I suspect strongly that I’m missing something basic. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to make my ignorance suitable for public consumption, but if anyone would like to help enlighten me privately, I’d be delighted.
Ok, but this isn’t actually making the case for MWI better to my mind. Instead of mass and energy being conserved in any closed system it is now only conserved on closed systems up to the “size” of a “world”. I don’t see how this loss of generality (especially since “worlds” tend to “split” into things that must now be treated independently despite coming from the same source) is a good thing.
I actually want to understand this correctly and I strongly suspect that I’m missing something basic. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the time to express my ignorance well in a public forum, but if anyone is willing to discuss privately, I’d be delighted.