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Splitting the Universe: Hugh Everett blew up quantum mechanics with his Many-Worlds theory [tr]
Aeon ^ | September 11, 2019 | Sean Carroll

Posted on 09/12/2019 9:05:16 AM PDT by C19fan

One of the most radical and important ideas in the history of physics came from an unknown graduate student who wrote only one paper, got into arguments with physicists across the Atlantic as well as his own advisor, and left academia after graduating without even applying for a job as a professor. Hugh Everett’s story is one of many fascinating tales that add up to the astonishing history of quantum mechanics, the most fundamental physical theory we know of.

Everett’s work happened at Princeton in the 1950s, under the mentorship of John Archibald Wheeler, who in turn had been mentored by Niels Bohr, the godfather of quantum mechanics. More than 20 years earlier, Bohr and his compatriots had established what came to be called the ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of quantum theory. It was never a satisfying set of ideas, but Bohr’s personal charisma and the desire on the part of scientists to get on with the fun of understanding atoms and particles quickly established Copenhagen as the only way for right-thinking physicists to understand quantum theory.

(Excerpt) Read more at aeon.co ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; hugheverett; johnarchibaldwheeler; manyworlds; nielsbohr; physics; science; stringtheory
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To: Williams

“Exactly and in the end I think there is something ridiculous about an entirely new universe being created every single time anything happens.”

What mandates that the split remains permanent?


21 posted on 09/12/2019 10:24:59 AM PDT by semaj (We are the People)
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To: C19fan

Theories are just that. Theories. They are not facts. They are not proven. As Einstein said, reality is just a perception but a persistent one.


22 posted on 09/12/2019 10:39:54 AM PDT by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: C19fan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Myriad_Ways

The title story can be read as a response to stories featuring the many-worlds interpretation as a key plot point, by taking the social implications of infinite realities to a depressing conclusion. A police detective, pondering a rash of unexplained suicides and murder-suicides occurring since the discovery of travel to parallel universes, begins to realize that if all possible choices that might be made actually are made in parallel universes, people will see their freedom of choice as meaningless. The choice not to commit suicide, or not to commit a crime, seems meaningless if one knows that in some other universe, the choice went the other way. They therefore kill themselves or commit the crime, because they abandon the sense of choice.


23 posted on 09/12/2019 10:50:18 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: Williams
"Exactly and in the end I think there is something ridiculous about an entirely new universe being created every single time anything happens."

But of course we know that this is true. In its simplest form, at every instant of time, everything in the cosmos is destroyed and re-created. One can never recapture what happened even a second ago; everything has changed, and everything means the entire universe or cosmos.

The question is whether alternate cosmoses are also created and whether, as time passes, they are destroyed or continue to exist somewhere.

24 posted on 09/12/2019 11:44:39 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Was the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency liberty's last gasp? Big Brother is watching you.)
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To: C19fan

The absolute termination of any relationship between philosophy and science.


25 posted on 09/12/2019 12:33:08 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Rinnwald

This means in another dimension I am the host of the Twilight Zone.


26 posted on 09/12/2019 1:35:45 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: semaj
What mandates that the split remains permanent?

Bingo! We have a winner!

Imagine a rope made up many, many strands. While they are separate strands, together they make up a rope.

Consider the major reality being the rope, with each strand being a kind of minor reality. In this model the strands branch off and split, but ultimately rejoin, all the while being a part of the larger rope, or all of reality.

27 posted on 09/12/2019 3:07:16 PM PDT by Crusher138 ("Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just")
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


28 posted on 09/12/2019 3:16:48 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Who will think of the gerbils ? Just say no to Buttgiggity !)
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To: C19fan

“Consciousness, in particular, has nothing to do with it. The ‘observer’ could be an earthworm, a microscope or a rock. There’s not even anything special about macroscopic systems, other than the fact that they can’t help but interact and become entangled with the environment. The price we pay for such a powerful and simple unification of quantum dynamics is a large number of separate worlds.”

Because physics (and even others areas of science) has so far failed to present a viable theory of consciousness, I think this assertion is merely an assumption that has not been supported objectively.

Don Hoffman is a physicist who has put forward a couple of strong theories (and proven theorems) that have so far been supported and not been falsified which support that the construct of space-time, including all of its physical laws, are themselves derived from consciousness. That is, what we observe is not objective reality but merely our interface to it.


29 posted on 09/12/2019 4:45:16 PM PDT by unlearner (War is coming.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; bajabaja; ...
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.


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30 posted on 09/13/2019 1:06:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“....”dark energy” and “string theory” and “many worlds” and “37 dimensions” ....”

Except there is some mathematics support for this. That doesn’t validate it but its better then hand waving and in the past has pointed the way for experiments.

Some of the cosmological theories under present knowledge require impossible levels of energy to validate. This will always be a problem for those types of theories.


31 posted on 09/13/2019 6:58:29 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Williams

If one more can be created why not an infinite number?


32 posted on 09/13/2019 8:06:54 AM PDT by GOPJ (I saw a movie about governments and weaponless people - - Schindler's List...freeper Chickensoup)
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