this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
89 points (89.4% liked)

Ask Science

12242 readers
124 users here now

Ask a science question, get a science answer.


Community Rules


Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.


Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.


Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.


Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.


Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.


Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.


Rule 7: Report violations.Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.


Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.


Rule 9: Source required for answers.Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.


By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.

We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I guess I've always been confused by the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics and the fact that it's taken seriously. Like is there any proof at all that universes outside of our own exist?

I admit that I might be dumb, but, how does one look at atoms and say "My God! There must be many worlds than just our one?"

I just never understood how Many Worlds Interpretation was valid, with my, admittedly limited understanding, it just seemed to be a wild guess no more strange than a lot things we consider too outlandish to humor.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

None.

It is, however, actually simpler than other theories, in that if you just let quantum mechanics do it's thing without extra (unknown) parts to limit it, it produces many worlds. So, by Occam's razor...

Specifically:Quantum systems are in more than one classical state at a time, unavoidably. You can see this in the double slit experiment. Even if you send a single particle at a time through the slits, it passes through both and creates the interference pattern. (There's also ways to formally prove that making quantum mechanics normal would require fate, or faster-than-light trickery which would actually be worse than fate)

Early physicists were very confused by this. The Schrodinger's cat was used as a thought experiment meant to illustrate how that's absurd, and it was decided there must be something that causes quantum states to "collapse" to one state before they can cause any trouble.

That's not definitely wrong, and it's still debated in versions by modern theorists, but it turned out not to be necessary. The reason for that is that if a part of a quantum system becomes entangled with something outside of it, the interference will no longer happen, and it becomes indistinguishable from multiple slightly different copies of the same system.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

That is a misinterpretation of the double slit experiment results, it’s way simpler than any of that. They were using photons, which is what causes us to see by being absorbed by our eyes or any sort of camera or observation device, the difference in impact patterns were simply the photons being absorbed or not. There is no sort of wave collapse or multiverse nonsense, the photons absorbed by film or eyes were just not impacting the surface because they were absorbed elsewhere, causing less friction between the photons and changing the patterns on the surface.

The Schrodinger thought experiment was intended to point out the ridiculousness of observation theory being applied in quantum theory, not an attempt to prove it.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

No, it's not. Exactly one photon (or electron) still arrives. You can refer to Wikipedia for this one. And refer to the no-go theorems if you're trying to push a homebrew hidden variable theory.

The Schrodinger thought experiment was intended to point out the ridiculousness of observation theory being applied in quantum theory, not an attempt to prove it.

Yes, which is why they had to come up with collapse, and later multiple worlds theory. Just not doing QM isn't an option.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Many Worlds ~~Theory~~ interpretation is nonsense, and nothing about anything you’ve said establishes any sort of proof for it.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

How did you become so arrogant about a subject you've clearly never bothered to do even the most cursary reading on? Your claims about the double slit experiment are contrary not just to Many Worlds, but to quantum physics in it's entirety.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I don't know where to start. There are so many things wrong with this comment that I'm confused as to how you even became confident enough about these falsehoods to write them. Where in the world did you get this idea of the Double Slit Experiment?

Just to be clear, what you are saying is literally that Quantum Physics in general is false, which flys in the face of the last century of science. This is literally flat earth tier

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

None. There is absolutely no proof of many worlds or the multiverse. RE the god of the gaps. It's much more interesting to do physics rather than speculate about what falls outside the purview of the scientific method.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 hours ago

I do not understand how people can be so arrogantly confident about topics they clearly have not learned the basics of

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 hours ago

The “many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics” is loosely that when you do a quantum coin flip, the universe splits into two universes, one for each result.

The reason for this thought is when you work with quantum mechanics, your system has a state that evolves smoothly, but if you “measure” it, the state suddenly snaps to (a random) one of the possible measurement values (when the coin isn’t being observed, it smoothly evolves, but once you measure it, it suddenly takes on a random value). However, if you expand your quantum description of the system to include your measurement device as well as the quantum “coin”, that sudden “snapping” goes away. Instead your whole system smoothly evolves, and it evolves into a “superposition” of the shared state of the state of the overall system in each of the possible measurement outcomes.

Extending this idea, it would seem that whenever you could describe a situation that acts like a “quantum coin flip”, both results happen, and the universe “splits”.

I really want to emphasize that the practical meaning of these “other worlds” is just that things are a lot “fuzzier” when you zoom in than classical statistics would suggest. Not that there’s another universe where you stayed with your ex or took a different career path or whatever.

Also this is an “interpretation” of quantum mechanics for good reason. It doesn’t really have any physical implications. In particular, it’s not possible to go “interact with” those “other universes”.

Most importantly, there are other “interpretations” of quantum mechanics, like that quantum mechanics is really a rethinking of statistics not of physics.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

We exist on the electromagnetic spectrum of energy, there are other types of energy and waves outside of that spectrum that we are aware exist, thus it’s reasonable to think there might be other realities outside of what we experience, this has lead to the idea of multiple universes, but that is a misinterpretation, as if we ever found ourselves outside of the electromagnetic spectrum we would cease to exist, as our matter does not exist in that spectrum. There is no evidence of any sort of butterfly effect multiverse sort of nonsense, that’s woo woo bullshit science fiction.

Anyone referring to the double slit experiment or schrodinger’s cat as proof of a multiverse don’t understand the basic concepts behind both of those things.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

Sounds like you don't understand the basic concepts involved, given that Many Worlds Theory has nothing to do with "other types of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum". Like, at all. Not even a little.

To be blunt, if you do not understand what is being claimed, you should try to learn, not make assertive statements about things you don't understand. It's frankly incredibly arrogant.

[–] Coopr8@kbin.earth 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

altr

https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1069

Effectively there is no current consensus on the issue, though Many Worlds and String Theory are widely regarded outside their adherents as non-falsifiable and therefore not legitimate theories.

Essentially the proponents of the theory have created beautiful math that fit their view, but absolutely nothing in the real world that can show that it is a more valid theory than any of the other theories which have equally elegant math to back them.

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml -1 points 20 hours ago

though Many Worlds and String Theory

String Theory has nothing to do with interpretations of quantum mechanics.

are widely regarded outside their adherents as non-falsifiable and therefore not legitimate theories.

Only by people who don't understand them.

Essentially the proponents of the theory have created beautiful math that fit their view

No? Many Worlds has nothing to do with math. You seem to be getting your criticisms mixed up. To be blunt: if you can't even remember what your criticism is actually meant to apply to, you should probably read into it more before commenting.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 70 points 2 days ago (37 children)

There isn't any "proof"; in fact, Many Worlds is what's called "unfalsifiable", which means we don't have a way through the scientific method to show Many Worlds to be false.

Also, it's not really

My God! There must be many worlds than just our one?

But more

There are moments in time where one path is taken and not another... but what if all paths are taken, somewhere?

It's not meant to be a valid theory, it's just a possible outcome of having a spacetime continuum; because it's not falsifiable though, it's not worth pursuing right now, only worth keeping in mind in case we come across new evidence to evaluate.

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Thank you for making the point so cleanly. I was about to piss a lot of people off

load more comments (36 replies)
[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 23 points 1 day ago (5 children)

[H]ow does one look at atoms and say "My God! There must be many worlds than just our one?"

Electrons. You've seen the model of the atom, right? Cluster of balls in the middle (protons and neutrons) and the electrons are little balls that whizz around like little planets around a Sun?

That model is a simplification of the truth. It turns out that it is impossible to pin down where an electron is and also know what it is doing. And if you know what it's doing (you can see its effects), you'll have no idea where it is.

Where they are has to be measured by probability. "It's bound to this nucleus / taking part in a chemical bond so it's likely to be in this vicinity", is about as close as you can get.

There is literally nothing excluding that electron from temporarily being a billion miles away. That's astronomically unlikely, but it's not impossible.

And by some measurement methods, when you do try to pinpoint where the electron is, it can appear to be in multiple places at once.

This can be interpreted as bleed-through from nearby quantum realms, maybe even other universes, where the electron is in one place per nearby universe. One of those places is ours, but we cannot tell which. And by the time we've made any kind of determination, the electron has moved. They never stop.

Photons - particles of light - also do this. All subatomic particles do this.

The more subatomic particles you have in some combined state (as an atomic nucleus, or even a molecule), the lower the probability is that that bound state can be in multiple places at once, but again, it is not ruled out.

But it does mean that the more bound particles an object is made from, the more definite its position appears to be, which is what we're used to at our human-sized scale.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If you want to go into depth on this, I recommend you look up Sean Carrol talking about the subject - or read his book Something Deeply Hidden, if you're up for it - he's one of the best science communicators I've heard and a strong proponent of many worlds.

But to try to summarize it in very short: the "multiversal" behavior is already baked into quantum mechanics - a particle can be in two places at once, as in the double slit experiment - just at a very small scale. Traditional quantum physics postulates that there's some mechanism by which this behavior is cut off before it reaches the macroscopic scale (wave function collapse). Many Worlds just asks "Do we actually need this postulate? What would it look like if we didn't have it?" And the answer is, it would look like the universe we experience, just with a multiverse along side it.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›