Title: The Everett interpretation

Date: Sep 21, 2007 10:00 AM

URL: http://pirsa.org/07090069

Abstract: I shall present an overview of quantum mechanics in the Everett interpretation, that emphasises its structural characteristics, as a theory ofwhat exists. In this respect it shares common ground with other fundamental theories in physics. As such its appeal is conservative; it makes do withthe purely unitary equations of quantum mechanics as exceptionless and universal. It also makes do with standard methods for extracting \'highlevel\' or \'emergent\' ontology, the furniture of macroscopic worlds, from largish molecules on up. It would appeal all the more if it made do withstandard epistemological principles too - for example, in the context of inductive statistical confirmation, with standard Bayesian epistemology. Butthis links to the question of the interpretation of probability in the Everett interpretation, and here the theory seems anything but conservative. It is acommon complaint that the approach leaves no room at all for talk of uncertainty. I shall argue, again on conservative interpretative practises, thatthis claim is incorrect. Chance events are, indeed, revealed in a surprising light - as quantum branchings - but they are the more perspicuous, andtheir properties and quantitative measure better explained, in light of that.

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