(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Sean Carroll

“That simple process—macroscopic objects become entangled with the environment, which we cannot keep track of—is decoherence, and it comes with universe-altering consequences. Decoherence causes the wave function to split, or branch, into multiple worlds. Any observer branches into multiple copies along with the rest of the universe. After branching, each copy of the original observer finds themselves in a world with some particular measurement outcome. To them, the wave function seems to have collapsed. We know better; the collapse is only apparent, due to decoherence splitting the wave function. We don’t know how often branching happens, or even whether that’s a sensible question to ask. It depends on whether there are a finite or infinite number of degrees of freedom in the universe, which is currently an unanswered question in fundamental physics. But we do know that there’s a lot of branching going on; it happens every time a quantum system in a superposition becomes entangled with the environment. In a typical human body, about 5,000 atoms undergo radioactive decay every second. If every decay branches the wave function in two, that’s 25000 new branches every second. It’s a lot.”

Sean Carroll, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime
Read more quotes from Sean Carroll


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!

1 like
All Members Who Liked This Quote

None yet!


This Quote Is From

Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime by Sean Carroll
5,986 ratings, average rating, 649 reviews
Open Preview

Browse By Tag