Ask Science
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.
view the rest of the comments
I think you misunderstand me. I'm talking specifically about the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum physics specifically, the one originally formulated by Hugh Everett. I'm not talking about just some general notion that "there might be other universes".
It's just an indisputable fact that the MWI requires their to be no wave function collapse, and if you don't understand why, you really have not learned enough about it to be in a position to declare it "unfalsifiable".
Essentially, yes. I think the important point is that MWI is only concerned with the multiverse that an uncollapsed wave function represents, not any other kind of multiverse that might exist in science or philosophy.
Here's a reasonably good article about them.. But to try and give a short explanation, the experiments were for a class of objective collapse theories were individual particles collapse spontaneously with a certain probability, and take any particles they're entangled with with them. The probability of any one particle collapsing at any given time is extremely low, but a macroscopic collection will collapse almost instantly, in the same way a uranium atom will take millions of years to decay on average, but a chunk of uranium sitting on a table will make your gieger counter sound like it's full of bees.
The important part though, is that - for reasons that are quite technical - the collapse of the particle actually emits a small but measurable amount of radiation, which is what the experiments were looking for.
To be clear, they didn't find it, which is bad for these theories. But if they had found it, it would have falsified Many Worlds.
Ok, well now you've basically argued that falsification in general is impossible, for anything. Just like geocentrists could always add more epicycles to explain the motion of the stars, any theory can add more post-hoc explanations for any observations. This isn't a standard you would apply to anything else, so I don't know why you're applying to MWI.
No they wouldn't, the laws of physics still apply
And why shouldn't I?
Yes, but by your standard, nothing can ever be falsified.
You asserting it doesn't make it true.
Except there is no radiation emission unless the wave-function objectively collapses. That's the point.
No, they don't. One predicts spontaneous radiation release, and one doesn't.
literally asking to prove a negative.
I think you missed the part where I said I'm done.