X-Message-Number: 5496
From: 
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 20:51:36 -0500
Subject: Lockwood & Perry

Still more from Lockwood's MIND, BRAIN & THE QUANTUM (Blackwell, Cambridge,
1989):

Many people--including, if I read him correctly, Dr. R.M. Perry--take the
"many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory, due to Everett and others, as
implying that the entire universe "splits" with every quantum interaction or
act of measurement. A superposition of states "collapses" into just one of
the eigenstates comprising the superposition, as we see it; from the alleged
Everett view the superposition "decomposes" into ALL of the eigenstates, but
each in a different "universe." (In what are all the universes linguistically
embedded--a "multiverse?")

According to Lockwood, however, this view is not correct; and it would e.g.
violate superluminal propagation of causation; and it is probably not what
Everett actually intended, even though he did not disavow some of the extreme
interpretations of his publicists.

I'll not attempt to go into further detail--of which there is a great
deal--but again I recommend the book highly. At the very least, some of the
people who think quantum theory is well understood need to read the reams of
material still being written by physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers
struggling to understand and interpret it.

And a personal remark: Dr. Perry (among others) seems to suggest that
many-worlds guarantees a multiplicity of near-identical continuers or
reincarnates in the fullness of time. (There was even a recent TV series
based on this; I think it was called SLIDERS.) I'm not sure why this should
be the case. The mere fact of infinite variations does not guarantee that
every possibility will be realized. As a crude analogy, I can easily draw an
infinite number of sketches without any of them bearing the remotest
resemblance to anyone's portrait.

Robert Ettinger    


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