Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Lev Vaidman · 2021 · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This source is used as context evidence across 2 linked claims and 4 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.
Summary
Detailed entry on the Everett / Many-Worlds interpretation, including the quantum measurement problem and probability.
How this source is used on the map
The default scholarly reference for what Many-Worlds actually claims and where it is contested.
Citation record
- Authors
- Lev Vaidman
- Year
- 2021
- Publication
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Source type
- Philosophy reference
- Map role
- context
- Credibility level
- primary
- Citation status
- Verified
- DOI
- Not recorded
- PubMed
- Not recorded
- Not recorded
Linked claims
In a long-lived, accelerating universe, random thermal fluctuations could spontaneously assemble a self-aware brain with false memories of a coherent life. Several modern cosmological models appear to predict such observers should statistically dominate — which is widely treated as a reason those models are wrong, not as evidence about you.
Everett's solution to the measurement problem. No collapse — every outcome happens in branching universes.
Related evidence hubs
Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.
Many-worlds, simulation, mathematical universe.
Cryptomnesia, anoxia models, cold reading. Counter-anchors.
Block universe, presentism, eternalism, emergent time.
Related sources
Steel-manned reference for what the many-worlds interpretation actually says, useful because popular versions often overstate what the physics entails.
Background reference for any claim that hinges on the foundations of QM, especially many-worlds, emergent-time, and physics-adjacent metaphysical claims.
The historical origin of the entire fluctuation-cosmology line of reasoning.
Useful conceptual reference for any claim about long-term cosmology and the cosmological-horizon temperature.
The most accessible book-length introduction to why physicists worry about the Boltzmann-brain problem and how it interacts with the arrow of time.
The standard reference for the cognitive-instability resolution and the philosophical case against taking Boltzmann-brain dominance as a real prediction.