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Monday, March 18, 2024

Deutsch defends Many-Worlds Theory

New podcast: The Multiverse is REAL - David Deutsch.

He says the double-slit experiment conclusively proves the many-worlds theory. He accepts the parallel worlds for the same reason he accepts the existence of dinosaurs (millions of years ago). It is the only way to explain the evidence.

He admits that the photons are not really particles, and that any waves show a similar diffraction pattern. But he says that for the photon to behave as a wave, it must exist in multiple copies.

He also admits that all this has been known for decades, and yet most physicists do not accept this argument for many-worlds.

I do not see any merit to this argument. The double-slit experiment only proves that light, and other beams like electron beams, have wave properties. That's all. It is not even evidence for quantum mechanics, as this wave explanation was accepted before quantum mechanics was invented.

When asked about alternative theories, he says the von Neumann had this crazy idea that if you observe an electron in one place, then the possibility of it being somewhere else ceases to exist.

I do not see the problem with that. I do not even think the issue has anything to do with quantum mechanics. Anytime you estimate the probability of an event, and then observe it, that means that the other possibilities did not happen. That is how probabilities work.

He pushes quantum computing, but admits that he has not followed the latest technology.

I see the argument for many-worlds as nothing more than a rejection of probability theory. You could take any scientific theory that predicts probabilities, deny that the probabilities make any sense, and conclude that there are parallel worlds of unobserved possibilities.

That is all many-worlds theory is. I don't think that it even has anything to with quantum mechanics. It is only expressed in terms of quantum mechanics, because textbook QM emphasizes the probabilities. But other theories use probabilities the same way, and could have many-worlds interpretations.

Many-worlds thsoey is just the same as taking a science textbook, announcing some philosophical disagreement with probability theory, and redacting all the sections mentioning probability. It adds nothing. It just removes the theory's predictive power.

It is hard to see how any intelligent man takes many-worlds seriously. It offers nothing. Maybe they just don't understand probability theory, as I do not see anywhere that they recognize that they are just rejecting probability.

PBS TV has a news item:

How quantum computing could help us understand more about the universe

Scientists, researchers and some big companies are eager to jumpstart the next generation of computing, one that will be far more sophisticated and dependent on understanding the subatomic nature of the universe. But as science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports, it’s a huge challenge to take this new quantum leap forward.

A lot of hype. They admit that a fault tolerant quantum computer might be decade away. No one admits that it might be impossible.

6 comments:

  1. Quantum computing is an employment/government funding project, not computer science, nothing more. As long as the money keeps coming in folks will act like everything is peachy keen.

    "The Spice must flow..."
    Dune (Bat-shit crazy David Lynch 1984 version)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The sincerity of a rich Western Patreon-funded kind [air travel and motel stay apparently easily affordable, also mike and high-quality recording equipment] vs. the Fraud of the Rich Western kind.

    Not interesting.

    And, not something of which I should be taking notice. [I watched a first few minutes just because you mentioned it, Roger.]

    And, BTW, since I did offend you, Roger, with that word ``Western'' in both parts of the sentence:

    Show me a single paid MWI-er from India, and I will straighten up him/her/it/they/theirs/etc. in no time. No help needed in that regard. You just have to trust me, and thusly, let me know.

    Best
    --Ajit

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Ajit R. Jadhav,
    Sugar attracts ants.
    Every nation has their own different kinds of conceits and corruptions. Where you have large amounts of money, you have the attracted parasites looking for a way to get some.

    The primary reason why such foolishness is so well known in the West is that we have more money and more media coverage...thus we have more parasites in the news. I have been reading however that the rates of poor/fraudulent/plagiarized scholarship has been skyrocketing throughout China, the middle-east, and India...even faster than the West. AI is actually throwing gasoline on this bonfire of the vanities with fraud being but a few mouse clicks away.

    Science in general is deteriorating into dogmatism, ideology, and political pandering, its once sterling reputation of objectivity is being burned through rapidly like so much good will in once great institutions.

    “Hubris and science are incompatible.” – Douglas Preston

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey CFT,

      It's just me, Ajit.

      But why do you guys have so much sugar in your land? Purely by ``productivity''?

      And why are you so shy of calling out JPBTIs for the collective fraud that they in fact are? e.g. Jaggi Ayyangar (the right winger), Shirish Deodhar (his classmate), Dr. Navin G. Kabra (who took pleasure in poking fun at me until his wife Mita finally (or temporarily) took the matters in her own hands)? others? There are plenty of them whom your own countrymen have gladly imported on your own soil, haven't they?

      And the incompetent girls they promoted to go to your country and now throw their idle weight around through the Central Government of India and all on and around me?

      BTW, I posted the comment below when this comment by you wasn't visible.

      All the same, I understand. I don't understand or for that matter even care for Noah's story and all. Mythology, it is, just like the Marketing Genius Gurcharan Das' Mahaaabhaaraathaa in Management Etc. of the yesteryears' Times of India, or the ``Physicist'' Rajiv Malhotra's (no relation, I suppose, to the Malhotra Shaving Blades of the yesteryears) ``knowledge'' of impossibility of translation of languages. (And, to his ``credit'', the poor fellow doesn't even have a PhD, I suppose. Check out here and let me know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Malhotra)

      So, I have no knowledge of that Noah. Yet, I guess, if not in the same boat, we are sailing similarly. Somewhat. That's the drift I catch from what you write.

      Alright. Just a blog comment.

      Best,
      --Ajit
      PS: But why is your country a land of sugar, if not of milk and honey? And why does it manage to attract the more III class among my countrymen? Do you have answer? Do you wish to think about it? Let me know.

      Delete
  4. Hmmm...

    You need to be *in*formed, CFT:

    JPBTI means:

    JEE Pass BTech IITian.

    ``IITian,'' here, does not refer to the BTech graduate of your country's Illinois Institute of Technology. Scott Aaronson also has used this acronym for something entirely different.

    Hmmm...

    Thanks for sharing your other thoughts though!

    Best,
    --Ajit
    PS: May be a better theory of such *in*formation is possible. I mean, who knows, and who in your country cares to mention it, if he *can*, you know?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Phssst,

    Hey CFT,

    That's how ब्राम्हण-born in my country regard you. Just Phssstt... [Supposed to be a love of a ब्राम्हण sort, you know?]

    Here, you have two JPBTI's. Also their Phillipino or Philosophical ब्राम्हण daughters or sons, which they want you to ensure that they live peacefully in your country,

    Of course,

    At my expense.

    Here:

    https://ajitjadhav.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/here-two-jpbtis/

    Also, here:

    https://ajitjadhav.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%af-%e0%a4%b6%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b0%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b0%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%ae-%e0%a4%ac%e0%a5%8b%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%87%e0%a4%97%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%bd%e0%a4%bd/

    Let it go at that, bad boy CFT!

    If you quarrel with *me*, I will become even more sane!

    Best,
    ---Ajit

    ReplyDelete