How to combine chance and determinism: Thinking about the future in an Everett universe

Philosophy of Science 70 (4):776-790 (2003)
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Abstract

I propose, in the context of Everett interpretations of quantum mechanics, a way of understanding how there can be genuine uncertainty about the future notwithstanding that the universe is governed by known, deterministic dynamical laws, and notwithstanding that there is no ignorance about initial conditions, nor anything in the universe whose evolution is not itself governed by the known dynamical laws. The proposal allows us to draw some lessons about the relationship between chance and determinism, and to dispel one source of the tendency among Everettians to introduce consciousness as a primitive element into physical description.

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Jenann Ismael
Columbia University

Citations of this work

Understanding Deutsch's probability in a deterministic universe.Hilary Greaves - 2004 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (3):423-456.
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References found in this work

Decoherence, relative states, and evolutionary adaptation.Simon Saunders - 1993 - Foundations of Physics 23 (12):1553-1585.

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