Hi Stephen Thanks for the link - very enjoyable talk. As far as I could follow it, he seemed to be saying that the differentiation of decoherent "worlds" is in the final analysis a "psychological" matter - i.e. that quasi-classical "reality", as ordinarily experienced, is consequent on the selection of particular "best-fit" or "most fruitful" interpretations of functional or structural features of the underlying micro-physical state-of-affairs. Whereas I did take to heart his admonitions as to the differing explanatory priorities of physics and philosophy, and particularly the centrality of functional explanations to science in general, I was a bit troubled by the seeming assumption that the requirement for such interpretation and selection just "bottoms out", as it were, at the level of micro-physics (although he did speculate at one point on the subject of "deeper" ontological bases below this "substitution level"). I couldn't quite decide whether he was actually "sweeping the 1st-person under the rug", in Bruno's terms. He didn't address this aspect directly, but perhaps this signals an implicit belief that micro-physical-functional, or ontological/epistemological, elements must always play a dual role in any intelligible account of our situation.
I wonder what you thought. David On 25 July 2011 05:05, Stephen P. King <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I would like to recommend this video of a talk by David Wallace on the > subject of Decoherence and Ontology in MWI. http://vimeo.com/5406821 > > Onward! > > Stephen > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
