- #1
Quantumental
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As the poll on this forum from 2011 that has recently been resurrected shows, there are a portion of the users here who adhere to the modern reading of the Everettian interpretation.
What I have never seen discussed here though is the issue of whether the worlds split(overlap) or diverge(non-overlap).
It's a distinction David Lewis made clear when discussing worlds in modal realism.
Either worlds are identical, but separate from the beginning (big bang) and then diverge as the worlds differentiate OR there is only one world in the beginning from which the other worlds split/branch 'out of' as time goes on.
The latter view is the one most people have heard of, but there is nothing in the quantum formalism that prefer this over non-overlap.
Alastair Wilson is one of the few who has written several papers on this issue and he prefers non-overlap.
His papers on the matter can be found here: http://alastairwilson.org/
Another prominent proponent of the modern Everettian reading of QM is Simon Saunders, he also advocates the non-overlap view in his chapter in the 2010 volume called Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
So Many-Worldians of PF.com, which view do you prefer and why?
What I have never seen discussed here though is the issue of whether the worlds split(overlap) or diverge(non-overlap).
It's a distinction David Lewis made clear when discussing worlds in modal realism.
Either worlds are identical, but separate from the beginning (big bang) and then diverge as the worlds differentiate OR there is only one world in the beginning from which the other worlds split/branch 'out of' as time goes on.
The latter view is the one most people have heard of, but there is nothing in the quantum formalism that prefer this over non-overlap.
Alastair Wilson is one of the few who has written several papers on this issue and he prefers non-overlap.
His papers on the matter can be found here: http://alastairwilson.org/
Another prominent proponent of the modern Everettian reading of QM is Simon Saunders, he also advocates the non-overlap view in his chapter in the 2010 volume called Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
So Many-Worldians of PF.com, which view do you prefer and why?