Everett and structure

By David Wallace. 2001

195 citations recorded by the source corpus.

I address the problem of indefiniteness in quantum mechanics: the problem that the theory, without changes to its formalism, seems to predict that macroscopic quantities have no definite values. The Everett interpretation is often criticised along these lines and I shall argue that much of this criticism rests on a false dichotomy: that the macroworld must either be written directly into the formalism or be regarded as somehow illusory. By means of analogy with other areas of physics, I develop the view that the macroworld is instead to be understood in terms of certain structures and patterns which emerge from quantum theory (given appropriate dynamics, in particular decoherence). I extend this view to the observer, and in doing so make contact with functionalist theories of mind.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, History and Philosophy of Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4e725fcc2d6bc3a1485c51aff1852e825e0004f2

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Maximilian Schlosshauer
2. Guido Bacciagaluppi
3. Christopher G. Timpson
4. David Wallace

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. Maximilian Schlosshauer
2. Guido Bacciagaluppi
3. Christopher G. Timpson
4. David Wallace
5. Gregg Jaeger

In History and Philosophy of Science

1. Maximilian Schlosshauer
2. Guido Bacciagaluppi
3. Christopher G. Timpson
4. David Wallace
5. Gregg Jaeger

Citations in the corpus

• Is logic empirical (2007, background): “The modern version we shall adopt here has been developed over the last fifteen years, mainly through the work of Saunders (1993), Wallace (2003, 2005) and Greaves (2004), and nowadays enjoys a broad though admittedly not universal consensus among philosophers of physics.”
• Quantum Mechanics on Spacetime I: Spacetime State Realism (2009, background): “If we regard the high-energy cut-off as real (as advocated by Wallace [2006]) and if the universe is spatially closed then the dimension of the space will be finite but extremely large.”
• Everettian Rationality: defending Deutsch's approach to probability in the Everett interpretation (2003, background): “I have argued elsewhere ( Wallace, 2001a, b) that there are no purely conceptual problems with using decoherence to solve the preferred-basis problem and that the inexactness of the process should give us no cause to reject it as insufficient.”
• Between classical and quantum (2005, unknown): “305See Wheeler & Zurek (1983). 306Cf.”
• Reality and the Role of the Wavefunction in Quantum Theory (2011, unknown): “, [22].”
• Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics (2003, background): “However, it was pointed out that these approaches fail due to the use of circular arguments (Barnum et al., 2000; Kent, 1990; Squires, 1990; Stein, 1984); cf. also Wallace (2003b) and Saunders (2002).”