clearspira wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:07 am
As I said in my other post though that is one of the biggest problems I have with this idea. If there are infinite or nearly infinite universes than surely some most have invented a sliding machine. Especially as there is no reason to believe that the laws of physics would be a constant when they aren't even a constant in our own universe.
Two things, one just because something is infinite does not mean it exhausts all possibilities.
For example there are an infinite number of rational numbers between 1 and 2, but that does not mean that set includes the number 3 because an infinite number of numbers does not mean every number. Indeed since say e/2 is between 1 and 2 but is not rational even that number would not be found in the set of all rational numbers between 1 and 2. Likewise even if there are an infinite number of different universes of the quantum many worlds type, does not mean they include every possible world.
Also slider machines could just be impossible (they could even be logically impossible if that matters), there is not set of numbers that contains an even prime number not equal to 2 because that combination of properties is impossible (2 is the only even prime number all other even numbers are divisible by 2 and therefore not prime).
It is often speculated that the laws of physics are not constant, I'm unaware that we know that they are not. Even if some of the laws vary and even if they vary infinitely in some respects that hardly means that all laws of physics vary infinitely in all respects (see above).
One of the appeal's of the Everett Many World's interpretation is that whether or not there are other worlds etc. the mathematical book keeping we need to use to describe the situation is equally complicated. So famously you have the double slit experiment. Well in such a situation you describe it mathematical by a wavefunction for a single particle where the wavefunction interferes with itself (like a wave would) and that creates a probability distribution which describes what we know about how the particle behaves. So if we understood this mathematics as describing not one weird wavefunction thingy in a single world, but a collection of worlds each with one particle in it describing their relative properties, you would theoretically not need more or different math (not much difference between one thing with lots of properties and lots of things each with one property). The math reflects an underlying physical reality where something about the behaviour of the single particle is spread over both holes in the slit etc. there is a physical interference going on, there is every indication there is some physical process going on the properties are physical properties.
So under most understandings of Quantum Mechanics the question the world is at least as complicated as if there are all those many worlds, it is just that instead of there being a thing that is a property of a single particle in one of the worlds you have a thing that is a property of this hugely complicated wavefunction that a single particle in this world has.
If you slider machine argument makes any sense we could equally imagine a machine which if possible would be actual (and all the attendant facts around it would become actual also). Therefore if the quantum wave function describing the universe assigns a probability to such a machine existing then it must exist (and its inventors etc.) that would be surprising if true and probably allow all kinds of shenanigans. I think we can construct similar bizarre scenarios for any attempt to explain the background of Quantum Mechanics. So I think your argument refutes every position equally fairly applied, so it does not tell us much.
