many-worlds theory
a recent quantum rabbithole 🐇
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many-worlds theory 🐇
i don’t know anything about quantum physics. i recently finished reading dark matter by blake crouch, and found myself wanting to learn more. this is how i best understood the many-worlds theory, the first layer of depth to my ongoing quantum rabbithole.
when we flip a coin, there are two possible outcomes while it’s in the air: heads or tails (i guess the edge as well, if you’re .. weird). in quantum physics, both possibilities, as tiny objects like electrons/photons, can blend together and exist at once — this is called a superposition.
as soon as you look at a superposition (make a measurement), you always get one definite answer. textbooks just say the wave “collapses” into a single outcome, but this is a patch we’ve stuck onto the theory, since a “collapse” isn’t derived from the original schrödinger equation.
pause, wdym by patch?
it’s the same way we bolt on an extra rule “f_friction = -μmg” to match real carts on real tracks for handling ideal, friction-free motion. that friction force isn’t truly derived from newton’s three laws — it’s a patch so the homework makes sense, but deeper theories (molecular dynamics) explain where friction actually comes from.
collapse plays a similar role: it’s an add-on that matches laboratory facts without telling you why or how it happens. the collapse isn’t physical law.
so, let’s unpatch it. 🤓
hugh everett, in 1957, radically suggested that maybe nothing collapses at all. perhaps the universe just splits into separate, non-communicating versions: one for each possible result. thus, once the quantum coin is measured, there’s world ‘a’ where we see heads, and world ‘b’ where we see tails. both of these worlds exist, but can’t communicate with each other, so each version of us believes only one observed outcome has occurred.
disclaimer, this isn’t proven, but it’s a theory that makes the math a lot simpler. it also feels cooler, doesn’t it?
cool, now we know the many-worlds theory. i’m going to go learn how this translates to applications in quantum computing now. 🫡
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harsehaj ✌️
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