Since I’m not familiar with Everett’s original presentation, I don’t know if you’re mistaken. Certainly popular accounts of MWI do seem to talk about “worlds” as something extra on top of QM.
Popular accounts written by journalists who don’t really understand what they are talking about may treat “worlds” as something extra on top of QM, but after reading serious accounts of MWI by advocates for over two decades, I have yet to find any informed advocate who makes that mistake. I am positive that Everett did not make that mistake.
I think that’s just a common misunderstanding most people have of MWI, unfortunately. Visualizing a giant decohering phase space is much harder than imagining parallel universes splitting off. I’m fairly certain that Eliezer’s presentation of MWI is the standard one though (excepting his discussion of timeless physics perhaps).
Since I’m not familiar with Everett’s original presentation, I don’t know if you’re mistaken. Certainly popular accounts of MWI do seem to talk about “worlds” as something extra on top of QM.
Popular accounts written by journalists who don’t really understand what they are talking about may treat “worlds” as something extra on top of QM, but after reading serious accounts of MWI by advocates for over two decades, I have yet to find any informed advocate who makes that mistake. I am positive that Everett did not make that mistake.
I think that’s just a common misunderstanding most people have of MWI, unfortunately. Visualizing a giant decohering phase space is much harder than imagining parallel universes splitting off. I’m fairly certain that Eliezer’s presentation of MWI is the standard one though (excepting his discussion of timeless physics perhaps).