“Conquering Mount Everett: Branch-Counting Versus the Born Rule”
Jake Khawaja – Princeton University
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
1:00pm–3:00pm (East Coast time)
Registration Form (Abstract and Video Below)
• The Foundations of Physics @Harvard series is co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy
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• Each talk will be 1 hour, followed by a 5-minute break and then 55 minutes for questions
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Questions or comments: Jacob Barandes, firstname_lastname(at)harvard.edu (organizer)
Abstract
This paper develops and advocates a rule for assigning self-locating credences in quantum branching scenarios, called Indexed Branch-Counting. It is argued that Indexed Branch-Counting can be justified on both accuracy-theoretic grounds and on the grounds that it satisfies a requirement of exchangeability for probability assignments. Since Indexed Branch-Counting diverges from the Born Rule, this poses trouble for Everettian approaches to probability. The paper also addresses a common argument against branch-counting, namely that the rule is incoherent in light of putative vagueness in the number of branches. Finally, the paper addresses a recent proposal from Simon Saunders that aims to reconcile branch-counting with the Born Rule, arguing that the proposal faces challenges.