From: Matt Mahoney (matmahoney@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Oct 27 2008 - 07:11:01 MDT
--- On Mon, 10/27/08, William Pearson <wil.pearson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mangled worlds, http://hanson.gmu.edu/mangledworlds.html,
> might also be true, so too thin worlds might perish.
I don't buy it. Many-worlds is just the application of quantum mechanics to include the observer (which makes the calculation intractable). Quantum mechanics works the same forwards and backwards in time. Therefore the interpretation of one universe splitting into two is wrong. We cannot distinguish this view from the view that there are already two universes, and in both you don't know which one you are in until a quantum observation is made. Furthermore, neither of these views can be distinguished from the case where there is only one universe and you don't know its state.
How do you distinguish a universe where quantum mechanics is truly random from a deterministic universe controlled by the bits of pi starting after the 3^^^3'rd bit?
-- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com
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