brockm on Nostr: What we would say is that in the world-split that occurs when that potassium isotope ...
What we would say is that in the world-split that occurs when that potassium isotope in your stomach decays, the likelihood that the *measurement* of that decay has an effect on your propensity to choose the cheeseburger has an infinitesimally small amplitude.
I think the problem you're having here, is you *are* using fictionalizations of the multiverse from movies and such to back into your understanding.
When a world split happens, it doesn't cause a roll of the dice into ad infinitum outcomes. It creates two branches two branches of the wave function which can be described as:
1. There is a branch of the wave function where the potassium isotope in your stomach has decayed, and was observed to be decay; and
2. There is a branch of the wave function where no decay occurred.
The only *mechanism* that the random decay of that isotope would have to cause you to choose chicken nuggets rather than a cheeseburger, would be if somehow the alpha particle managed to hit some part of your brain in *exactly* the right way, at *exactly* the right time, to cause you to have a change in your cognitive processes in such a way that you act upon a different preference.
But you seem to be thinking that Carroll et. al. are saying is that every time one of these decays occurs, that a world-spit occurs where you make *every* *possible* *choice*. And that's just absolutely not what Carroll or Everett were saying.
I think the problem you're having here, is you *are* using fictionalizations of the multiverse from movies and such to back into your understanding.
When a world split happens, it doesn't cause a roll of the dice into ad infinitum outcomes. It creates two branches two branches of the wave function which can be described as:
1. There is a branch of the wave function where the potassium isotope in your stomach has decayed, and was observed to be decay; and
2. There is a branch of the wave function where no decay occurred.
The only *mechanism* that the random decay of that isotope would have to cause you to choose chicken nuggets rather than a cheeseburger, would be if somehow the alpha particle managed to hit some part of your brain in *exactly* the right way, at *exactly* the right time, to cause you to have a change in your cognitive processes in such a way that you act upon a different preference.
But you seem to be thinking that Carroll et. al. are saying is that every time one of these decays occurs, that a world-spit occurs where you make *every* *possible* *choice*. And that's just absolutely not what Carroll or Everett were saying.