Your conception of the MWI seems to be the DeWitt-Graham version, which is pretty outdated. According to this version, there is a global duplication of the entire universe every time there is a measurement of a quantum event with two possible outcomes. I agree that this interpretation is no less handwavey than Copenhagen.
But most contemporary proponents of the MWI (including Eliezer) don’t believe there is any mysterious world-splitting process that is extraneous to the dynamics. The theory should really be called Everettianism (or maybe, as Everett originally labeled it, the relative state formulation) rather than many-worlds. The idea is just that nothing more than the Schrodinger dynamics is required in order to account for our experience of a macroscopically classical world with determinate measurement outcomes. The appearance of collapse (or world-splitting) is fully accounted for by decoherence. This version of the MWI does not involve the periodic disruption of the dynamics postulated by Copenhagen. Nor is it empirically equivalent to Copenhagen.
So I urge you to reconsider your dislike of the MWI! Join us on the dark side...
Your conception of the MWI seems to be the DeWitt-Graham version, which is pretty outdated. According to this version, there is a global duplication of the entire universe every time there is a measurement of a quantum event with two possible outcomes. I agree that this interpretation is no less handwavey than Copenhagen.
But most contemporary proponents of the MWI (including Eliezer) don’t believe there is any mysterious world-splitting process that is extraneous to the dynamics. The theory should really be called Everettianism (or maybe, as Everett originally labeled it, the relative state formulation) rather than many-worlds. The idea is just that nothing more than the Schrodinger dynamics is required in order to account for our experience of a macroscopically classical world with determinate measurement outcomes. The appearance of collapse (or world-splitting) is fully accounted for by decoherence. This version of the MWI does not involve the periodic disruption of the dynamics postulated by Copenhagen. Nor is it empirically equivalent to Copenhagen.
So I urge you to reconsider your dislike of the MWI! Join us on the dark side...
...and the light side, and the grey side.
Seem my other reply.