For me, if it is truly, knowably, not falsifiable, then there is no evidence for it that matters. Many things that are called not falsifiable are probably falsifiable eventually. So MWI, do we know QM so well that we know there are no implications of MWI that are not experimentally distinguishable from non-MWI theories? Something like MWI, for me, is something which probably is falsifiable at some level, I just don’t know how to falsify it right now and I am not aware of anybody that I trust that does know how to falsify it. Then the “argument” over MWI is really an argument over whether developing falsifiable theories from a story that includes MWI is more or less likely to be efficiently productive than developing falsifiable theories from a story that rejects MWI. We are arguing over the quality of intuitions years before the falsification or verification can actually take place. Much as we spend a lot of effort anticipating the implications of AI which is not even close to being built.
I actually think the discussion of MWI are useful, as someone who does participate in forming theories and opinions about theories. I just think it is NOT a discussion about scientific truth, or at least not yet it isn’t. It is not an argument over which horse won the last race, rather it is an argument over what kinds of horses will be running a race a few years from now, and which ones will win those races.
But yes, more evidence means more confidence which I think is entirely consistent with the map/territory/bayesian approach generally credited around here.
Is this different from having higher confidence in statements for which I have more evidence?
For me, if it is truly, knowably, not falsifiable, then there is no evidence for it that matters. Many things that are called not falsifiable are probably falsifiable eventually. So MWI, do we know QM so well that we know there are no implications of MWI that are not experimentally distinguishable from non-MWI theories? Something like MWI, for me, is something which probably is falsifiable at some level, I just don’t know how to falsify it right now and I am not aware of anybody that I trust that does know how to falsify it. Then the “argument” over MWI is really an argument over whether developing falsifiable theories from a story that includes MWI is more or less likely to be efficiently productive than developing falsifiable theories from a story that rejects MWI. We are arguing over the quality of intuitions years before the falsification or verification can actually take place. Much as we spend a lot of effort anticipating the implications of AI which is not even close to being built.
I actually think the discussion of MWI are useful, as someone who does participate in forming theories and opinions about theories. I just think it is NOT a discussion about scientific truth, or at least not yet it isn’t. It is not an argument over which horse won the last race, rather it is an argument over what kinds of horses will be running a race a few years from now, and which ones will win those races.
But yes, more evidence means more confidence which I think is entirely consistent with the map/territory/bayesian approach generally credited around here.