Decoherence is subject to what I think are some fatal criticisms. The decoherence interpretation tries to neutralize the strangeness of QM by suggesting that quantum systems lose information as it interacts with its environment causing the appearance of a wave-function collapse.
The problem is that you cannot "lose" information to the environment because the universe as a whole has no environment. This is to put it rather simply but to say that the decoherence interpretation is not subject to criticism is simply untrue.
The problem with the many worlds hypothesis (and all interpretations of QM) is that is it unfalsifiable. The theory supposes that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, which completely undermines the principle of parsimony.
The observer seems to be play a crucial role in QM because measuring a quantum system appears to decide its properties. But of course that is exactly what is trying to be refuted by the many worlds hypothesis and decoherence.
Consciousness re-encountered.
Last edited by DysonSphere; 12-05-2007 at 07:35 PM..
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