Frank, I think you have an idea that many-worlds means a bunch of parallel universes, each with a single past and future, like parallel train tracks. That is most emphatically not what the interpretation means. Rather*, all of the universes with my current state in their history are actual futures that the current me will experience (weighted by the Born probabilities).
If there’s an event which I might or might not witness (but which won’t interfere with my existence), then that’s really saying that there are versions of me that witness it and versions of me that don’t. But when it comes to death, the only versions of me that notice anything are the ones that notice they’re still alive. So I really should anticipate waking up aliveâ but my family should anticipate me being dead the next day, because most of their future versions live in worlds where I’ve passed on.
The conclusion above is contentious even among those who believe the many-worlds interpretation; however, the rejection of the ‘parallel tracks’ analogy is not contentious in the least. If (as you indicate) you think that you have one future and that the version of you who will be miraculously cured overnight isn’t the same you, then you have misunderstood the many-worlds interpretation.
*This is an oversimplification and falsification, of course, but it’s a damn sight closer than the other image.
Frank, I think you have an idea that many-worlds means a bunch of parallel universes, each with a single past and future, like parallel train tracks. That is most emphatically not what the interpretation means. Rather*, all of the universes with my current state in their history are actual futures that the current me will experience (weighted by the Born probabilities).
If there’s an event which I might or might not witness (but which won’t interfere with my existence), then that’s really saying that there are versions of me that witness it and versions of me that don’t. But when it comes to death, the only versions of me that notice anything are the ones that notice they’re still alive. So I really should anticipate waking up aliveâ but my family should anticipate me being dead the next day, because most of their future versions live in worlds where I’ve passed on.
The conclusion above is contentious even among those who believe the many-worlds interpretation; however, the rejection of the ‘parallel tracks’ analogy is not contentious in the least. If (as you indicate) you think that you have one future and that the version of you who will be miraculously cured overnight isn’t the same you, then you have misunderstood the many-worlds interpretation.
*This is an oversimplification and falsification, of course, but it’s a damn sight closer than the other image.