I tried to be careful about this. In an earlier post, I said: “But do not that I’m not saying that the angelic being will in fact appear somewhere! That one would follow from quantum mechanics being a complete theory and MWI (or QIT) being a correct interpretation, both of which are surely debatable (and even then it would only happen in a very small minority of all worlds).”
That said, I think it’s quite a radical position to assign much probability to the possibility that QM is wrong. So far it’s consistent with all the evidence that we have, and there’s no evidence to support any of the competing theories or modifications, like objective-collapse theories. Because of this, a hypothetical improved theory might also contain all the weird stuff that QM does, plus some more.
On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if the people working on these theories would be more inclined to question them if they thought more about all the absurd implications they potentially have. (They might not: I recall reading a statement somewhere by Steven Weinberg who thought that eternal inflation or some other multiverse-predicting theory is a miserable theory, but the best that there is and possibly correct.)
I think it’s quite a radical position to assign much probability to the possibility that QM is wrong.
I don’t think so, with the slight change from “QM is wrong” to “QM is limited in its applicability, just like Newtonian physics”.
But in any case, in this thread you operate in a black-and-white world of “zero probability” and “non-zero probability”. I am pointing out that the set of zero-probability events is empty.
I don’t think so, with the slight change from “QM is wrong” to “QM is limited in its applicability, just like Newtonian physics”.
Fair enough. I suppose one could say that the problems with combining QM and general relativity suggest that QM needs to be modified, but so far we don’t have experimental evidence for anything but pure QM, I believe.
But in any case, in this thread you operate in a black-and-white world of “zero probability” and “non-zero probability”. I am pointing out that the set of zero-probability events is empty.
Well, our discussion spun off from a comment where lisper claimed that surely there are situations where death is inevitable. I countered by saying that as far as I know, there’s always some way to survive that has a non-zero probability according to quantum mechanics, so that’s where the emphasis on zero vs non-zero probability originally came. Note that the view advocated in the original post views the formalism of quantum mechanics as an accurate description at all scales and also says that all events with a non-zero probability will happen (but that the ones we end up not observing are not something we should care about).
I tried to be careful about this. In an earlier post, I said: “But do not that I’m not saying that the angelic being will in fact appear somewhere! That one would follow from quantum mechanics being a complete theory and MWI (or QIT) being a correct interpretation, both of which are surely debatable (and even then it would only happen in a very small minority of all worlds).”
That said, I think it’s quite a radical position to assign much probability to the possibility that QM is wrong. So far it’s consistent with all the evidence that we have, and there’s no evidence to support any of the competing theories or modifications, like objective-collapse theories. Because of this, a hypothetical improved theory might also contain all the weird stuff that QM does, plus some more.
On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if the people working on these theories would be more inclined to question them if they thought more about all the absurd implications they potentially have. (They might not: I recall reading a statement somewhere by Steven Weinberg who thought that eternal inflation or some other multiverse-predicting theory is a miserable theory, but the best that there is and possibly correct.)
I don’t think so, with the slight change from “QM is wrong” to “QM is limited in its applicability, just like Newtonian physics”.
But in any case, in this thread you operate in a black-and-white world of “zero probability” and “non-zero probability”. I am pointing out that the set of zero-probability events is empty.
Fair enough. I suppose one could say that the problems with combining QM and general relativity suggest that QM needs to be modified, but so far we don’t have experimental evidence for anything but pure QM, I believe.
Well, our discussion spun off from a comment where lisper claimed that surely there are situations where death is inevitable. I countered by saying that as far as I know, there’s always some way to survive that has a non-zero probability according to quantum mechanics, so that’s where the emphasis on zero vs non-zero probability originally came. Note that the view advocated in the original post views the formalism of quantum mechanics as an accurate description at all scales and also says that all events with a non-zero probability will happen (but that the ones we end up not observing are not something we should care about).