The personal world is by no means a new idea. ‘Many-minds’ interpretations of this nature began to appear in the 1970s. But although these theories solve fundamental problems they have been generally ignored and sidelined. The main problem is there is no ‘ontology’, no fundamental explanation. This is the breakthrough claimed in Avant Garde Science.
Many Minds
Hugh Everett’s famous Many-Worlds interpretation (1957) of quantum theory means that all possible worlds exist. Half a century later, this is increasingly accepted. David Deutsch, a renowned physicist who works on fundamental issues, states this is without question correct:
The point that theorists tend to miss is that the multiplicity of reality is not only, or even primarily, a consequence of quantum theory. It is quite simply an observed fact. (1996)
According to the ‘many-minds’ interpretations these worlds are defined relative to the mind. As stated by one of the authors, mathematician Matthew Donald:
Many-minds interpretation of quantum mechanics extends the many-worlds interpretation by proposing that the distinction between worlds should be made at the level of the mind of an individual observer. (1998)
Copies
The existence of all possible worlds gives rise to a remarkable implication. There are a great many identical copies of a specific individual. This is described by prominent cosmologist Max Tegmark in his paper Parallel Universes (2003). As Deutsch states, these are without question all the same person. Given there are multiple identical copies of me, he asks, which one am I?:
I am, of course, all of them. Each of them has just asked that question, ‘which one am I?’, and any true way of answering that question must give each one of them the same answer. (1997, 279)
Each one is a specific physical individual who exists in different version of the physical world. But with respect to the mind the situation is radically different.
The Superworld
By definition, all these individuals have identically the same mind, a specific world hologram. And in the quantum universe, the many worlds all exist in the same place at the same time, superposed. This is fundamental to quantum theory. And since all this identical copies of the mind are in the same place at the same time, this means there is actually only one of this mind as described on the home page.
This sets the scene for the new idea. This mind exists simultaneously in all those worlds. So for this mind, the reality is all of these worlds all at the same time, superposed. The result is a superposition of worlds, a ‘superworld’. And this provides the exact explanation of the relative worlds defined by Vaidman.
To illustrate this we need images of the butterfly with its wings in different positions. The last image is the superposed sum of all the possible wing positions. In this superposition, only the body of the butterfly is the same in all the images, so only the body is solid and definite. The wings are the superposed sum of all the possible variations, so the image of the wings is indefinite.
This is what happens with the superworld. All the objects and events that I have observed are the same in all the superposed worlds. So all these objects are determinate, real and solid, like the body of the butterfly. But for everything else, everything that has not been observed, the opposite is true. Every possible variation of how things could be is included in the superposition. So all those things are indeterminate, like the wings of the butterfly.
So the reality is literally the superposition of different (classical) states, just as Vaidman describes. This is the explanation of the relative world, the ontology. This is what it is ‘made of’.
The relative world is a superworld, which is the reason it is determinate only where observed. This has very different properties to the ordinary world. And this is what explains the great paradox of the quantum theory, the measurement problem as will be described in The Science. There is also strong theoretical evidence for this explanation in The Holographic Universe.
The next main section is Strange Attractors.