From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Nov 23 2002 - 22:18:06 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
>> Correct, and in MWI *the observer splits* when
>> that measurement is registered in the observer.
>> It happens at the moment of actually observing a
>> measurement(i.e., the firing of neurons as you like
>> to say.)
>
> Dead wrong.
No, I'm dead right, I'll prove it by posting as many
third party references as necessary, starting with the
one below taken from the MWI faq posted at
http://www.hedweb.com/everett/everett.htm
I have capitalized and offset some sentences to
high-light them.
****
Q8 When does Schrodinger's cat split?
Consider Schrodinger's cat. A cat is placed in a
sealed box with a device that releases a lethal does
of cyanide if a certain radioactive decay is detected.
For simplicity we'll imagine that the box, whilst
closed, completely isolates the cat from its
environment. After a while an investigator opens the
box to see if the cat is alive or dead. According to
the Copenhagen Interpretation the cat was neither
alive nor dead until the box was opened, whereupon the
wavefunction of the cat collapsed into one of the two
alternatives (alive or dead cat). The paradox,
according to Schrodinger, is that the cat presumably
knew if it was alive *before* the box was opened.
According to many-worlds the device was split into two
states (cyanide released or not) by the radioactive
decay, which is a thermodynamically irreversible
process (See "When do worlds split?" and "Why do
worlds split?"). As the cyanide/no-cyanide interacts
with the cat the cat is split into two states (dead or
alive). From the surviving cat's point of view it
occupies a different world from its deceased copy.
THE ONLOOKER IS SPLIT INTO TWO COPIES ONLY WHEN THE
BOX IS OPENED AND THEY ARE [THE ORIGINAL IS] ALTERED
BY THE STATES OF THE CAT.
The cat splits when the device is triggered,
irreversibly.
THE INVESTIGATOR SPLITS WHEN THEY OPEN THE BOX.
The alive cat has no idea that investigator has split,
any more than it is aware that there is a dead cat in
the neighbouring split-off world. The investigator can
deduce, after the event, by examining the cyanide
mechanism, or the cat's memory, that the cat split
prior to opening the box.
****
As above, the observer does not split until him (they)
are *altered by the states of the cat*. This means
each of the newly created alternates are created in a
*different state* according to the different empirical
data they are observing.
There is no time at which all the dupes in a MWI 1000
way chamber exist in exactly the same state, because,
as above, their variance in states is *coincidental*
to their proliferation into 1000 alternates. Each of
the 1000 comes into existence in a different state,
depending on which of the 1000 outcomes he is
experiencing.
I'm not going to muddy up this message by quoting and
replying to every paragraph of yours. We need to get
this fact straight before we go on. I think you're
going to owe me an apology.
-gts
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