Related papers: Some Implications of the Independence Postulate fo…
Attempts to derive the Born rule, either in the Many Worlds or Copenhagen interpretation, are unsatisfactory for systems with only a finite number of degrees of freedom. In the case of Many Worlds this is a serious problem, since its goal…
Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between possible and impossible physical transformations - those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from…
We study particle theories that have a tower of worldline internal degrees of freedom. Such a theory can arise when the worldsheet of closed strings is dimensionally reduced to a worldline, in which case the tower is infinite with regularly…
Contrary to an oft-made claim, there can be observational distinctions (say for the expansion of the universe or the cosmological constant) between "single-history" quantum theories and "many-worlds" quantum theories. The distinctions occur…
We show that outliers occur almost surely in computable dynamics over infinite sequences. Ever greater outliers can be found as the number of visited states increases. We show the Independence Postulate explains how outliers are found in…
A new mathematics, the constructive one, characterizes a singular limit as undecidable. Hence, a singular limit between two theories actually represents a difference between two different kinds of mathematics. This particular situation…
Structural independence is the (conditional) independence that arises from the structure rather than the precise numerical values of a distribution. We develop this concept and relate it to $d$-separation and structural causal models.…
Popular multiverse models such as the one based on the string theory landscape require an underlying set of unexplained laws containing many specific features and highly restrictive prerequisites. I explore the consequences of relaxing some…
I argue that background freedom in quantum gravity automatically leads to a dissociation of the quantum state into states having a classical space. That is, interference is not completely well-defined for states with different space…
The stability of dynamical systems against perturbations (variations in initial conditions/model parameters) is a property referred to as structural stability. The study of sensitivity to perturbation is essential because in experiment…
We note the separation of a quantum description of an experiment into a statement of results (as probabilities) and an explanation of these results (in terms of linear operators). The inverse problem of choosing an explanation to fit given…
It is often thought that the existence of other worlds cannot be scientifically verified and therefore should be treated as philosophical speculation. In this article, I describe several methods for determining if other worlds exist, even…
The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics predicts the formation of distinct parallel worlds as a result of a quantum mechanical measurement. Communication among these parallel worlds would experimentally rule out alternatives to…
The independence of the continuum hypothesis is a result of broad impact: it settles a basic question regarding the nature of N and R, two of the most familiar mathematical structures; it introduces the method of forcing that has become the…
Evidence for fine-tuning of physical parameters suitable for life can perhaps be explained by almost any combination of providence, coincidence or multiverse. A multiverse usually includes parts unobservable to us, but if the theory for it…
We reveal a contradiction in measure-theoretic probability. The contradiction is an "equation" $1/2 = 0$ with its two sides representing probabilities. Unlike known paradoxes in mathematics, the revealed contradiction cannot be explained…
The analyzability of the universe into subsystems requires a concept of the "independence" of the subsystems, of which the relativistic quantum world supports many distinct notions which either coincide or are trivial in the classical…
The present discussion concerning certain fundamental physical theories (such as string theory and multiverse cosmology) has reopened the demarcation problem between science and non-science. While parts of the physics community see the…
Although many people have thought that the difference between the Copenhagen and many-worlds versions of quantum theory was merely metaphysical, quantum cosmology may allow us to make a physical test to distinguish between them empirically.…
The measurement conundrum seems to have plagued quantum mechanics for so long that impressions of an inconsistency amongst its axioms have spawned. A demonstration that such purported inconsistency is fictitious may then be in order and is…