Physics Asked on July 30, 2021
How is the many worlds interpretation (MWI) of QM consistent with the probabilistic interpretation of the wave function (given by Born’s interpretation)? For example, say a particle has a 90% chance of ending up in state 1 after a measurement, and a 10% chance of ending up in state 2. How does our consciousness "know" to end up in the universe where the particle is in state 1 much more often than the universe where it’s in state 2? I mean, surely it should be completely random which world our experience happens to fall into, meaning that the probabilities should have been 50-50, corresponding to the two possible worlds?
Since my comment was a bit long, I'll post this as an answer.
Your point here is commonly brought up as a critique of MWI. If the wavefunction/quantum state is all that is needed to describe reality, then there must be a derivation of the Born rule from the dynamics of QM alone. No consensus has been reached as to whether the Born rule has been derived. This issue has sometimes been dubbed as the incoherence problem. See this page and this page for more info.
Also, you may be interested in Sean Carroll's idea of self-locating uncertainty, and David Deutsch's decision theory approach. These two approaches attempt to answer your question, so you should look into them. And again, not everyone agrees that these approaches are satisfactory.
Correct answer by Maximal Ideal on July 30, 2021
One problem presented by your question is that there is not a single many worlds interpretation, but a variety, some of which are more open to criticism than others.
If you consider an extreme interpretation which assumes that there is a continual branching in which everything in every universe is repeatedly replicated in yet more universes, our consciousness included, then there will be instances of you in universes in which only the more improbable sequences of events have ever happened. Physicists conducting experiments in those branches must find very puzzling results.
The other problem is that the interpretations are just that- interpretations, and there are at present no decisive physical tests of their validity.
Answered by Marco Ocram on July 30, 2021
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