RE: [asa] Study claims that Parallel Universes really do exist.

Alain Aspect settled the issue of hidden variables with the aid of Bell's inequality in the crucial "Bell test experiments <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_test_experiments> ." I do not know how one can do similar types of experiments without access to other universes. I agree that a multiverse is an interpretation of the usual quantum mechanics however, it adds nothing new to our knowledge of Nature and so the Copenhagen interpretation suffices.

 
Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Iain Strachan
Sent: Sun 9/30/2007 6:45 AM
To: asa
Subject: [asa] Study claims that Parallel Universes really do exist.

This seems to have come up in the last week, originally reported, I believe in New Scientist.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paUniverse_sun14_parallel_universes&show_article=1&cat=0

The punch-line is:

The Oxford team, led by Dr David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes.

Does anyone know anything about this? Is it really anything new (one expert commenting in New Scientist) says it will go down as one of the most important discoveries in the history of science. In the absence of details, it's hard to tell whether or not this is just journalist hype.

  It seems to me that showing mathematically that the branching structure of the universe can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes is NOT the same as proving that the parallel universes exist, and falls foul of the same fallacy as the Design argument - because we know that Designers can explain intricate mechanisms from watches is not the same thing as saying that the existence of apparent design implies the existence of the Designer.

In order to show that the parallel universes really exist, one would have to find independent predictions from the theory, that differ from, say Copenhagen, which can be tested against.

It is of great interest that a forthcoming Christians In Science meeting in Oxford on October 15th is on multiverses.

Iain

-- 
-----------
After the game, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.
- Italian Proverb
----------- 
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.