On 22/11/2017 2:24 pm, Brent Meeker wrote:
On 11/21/2017 6:21 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On 22/11/2017 1:01 pm, Brent Meeker wrote:
On 11/21/2017 5:16 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On 22/11/2017 12:06 pm, Brent Meeker wrote:
On 11/21/2017 4:05 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
No, it seems that for Maudlin MWi is essentially incoherent
because it cannot come to grips with a sensible account of
probabilities. All attempts to derive probabilities and the Born
rule in MWI have been shown to be circular. Maudlin talks a
little more about this in his book.
Omnes takes the very sensible position that QM is a probabilistic
theory so it predicts probabilities. if the QM of Hilbert space
predicts probabilities, the probabilities must be those of the
Born rule.
I think there is an element of question begging in that.
He's explicitly assuming QM is a probabilistic theory. That may be
begging the question for the MWI believer who want it to be
deterministic and so have to find an explanation for the "apparent"
randomness.
It's question-begging because the fact that QM is a probabilistic
theory is not part of the theory, as are the wave function and the
SE. Probability may be part of Dirac's equipment, but then he does
not invoke a wave function or the SE.
If you explicitly postulate it, it's not begging any question. It's
just adding a postulate to make the theory usable...which is what Born
did.
The point is arguable. Is it /ad hoc/, or /begging the question/? I
suppose this is coloured by the advocates of MWI who claim that the
theory is its own interpretation. In Bohr's CI, the Born Rule is
definitely an /ad hoc/ addition, but then the whole theory was a bit /ad
hoc/ at that stage.
In the final analysis it probably doesn't matter much, since all
theories are /ad hoc/ to some extent.
Bruce
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