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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Extravagance of the Multi-Universe interpretation

If the "multi-universe" interpretation of the various slit experiments is real (and I have to say it is the only interpretation that avoids what I see as mystical influences by the observer), one should sit back and think about how really extravagant it is.

Take an atom of uranium.  At some random point in time it will decay, but when it will do so is utterly unpredictable ("truly" random).  The only thing we can do is observe a probability, based on observing billions of such atoms and calculating their rate of decay (in this case it says that in several billion years there is a 50% chance that it will have decayed).

However, the given atom "decides" each Plank moment (if you have any idea how short a time that is, raise your hand) whether or not to decay or not.  In the multi-universes interpretation, a number of universes branch -- almost all not decaying (billions upon billions upon billions) and one decaying.  So, each Plank moment, for each uranium atom in the universe, such a number of otherwise identical universes branch away.

This applies to each quantum event anywhere in the universe, such as an electron deciding to decay from an excited state, or a proton deciding to decay (and the number of non-decay "decisions" here must truly be outrageous, since protons live much, much longer than uranium atoms), throughout the entire universe (which is immensely larger than the billions of galaxies that are observable).

In short, the theory is so extravagant that most who understand it tend to recoil, not on any logical basis but just because it is so extravagant.

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