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Getting Rid of Many Worlds. A Closer Look at Everett’s Dissertation

Hugh Everett’s dissertation is commonly accepted as the origin of the Many-Worlds Interpretation. Remarkably, there is not a single mention of “worlds” or “branching” in the whole text.

Taking a closer look at the text of the dissertation, I will argue that Everett introduced mainly a formalism that is itself open to interpretation. And while the formalism itself is rather useful in avoiding common confusions in the analysis of the measurement of entangled states, the standard Many-Worlds interpretation is open to serious criticism on its own terms. I will consider some alternative interpretations of Everett’s formalism and their relation to existing interpretations. Finally, I will analyze what assumptions are necessary to maintain the strengths of Everett’s formalism.

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Speaker: Christoph Lehner (Independent Researcher)

Time: 11:00

 

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