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Max Jammer letter to Hugh Everett, 28-August-1973

Max Jammer

Published Aug 28, 1973• 0 citations
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Abstract

In the early 1970s, physicist and philosopher of physics Max Jammer began working on a follow up to his classic 1966 book, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. Jammer hoped that the new book, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective (1974), could contain some additional information on the Hugh Everett interpretation. Here he writes to Everett with some questions concerning Everett's intellectual development and the historical context in which Everett developed his interpretation.

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John Wheeler letter to Max Jammer, 19-March-1972

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In the early 1970s, physicist and philosopher of physics Max Jammer began working on a follow up to his classic 1966 book, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. Jammer hoped that the new book, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective (1974), could contain some additional information on the Everett interpretation. This letter is Wheeler's reply to a letter from Jammer seeking Everett's contact information. It is interesting to note that the address Wheeler provides is incorrect – which explains why the letter in the archive from Jammer to Everett is dated almost 18 months later, with Jammer attributing Everett's correct address to DeWitt. It seems that Wheeler and Everett were largely not in contact by this time, though they would meet and correspond periodically over the next five or six years.

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Everettian quantum mechanics

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An interpretation of quantum mechanics dating back to mid-1950s, based on the ideas of Hugh Everett III, has found a new lease on life in recent decades. Significant efforts have been made by physicists and philosophers of physics to bring advances in physics and philosophy to bear on the interpretation, and to overcome some of the shortcomings in Everett's bold, but limited writings. This article presents an introduction to Everettian quantum mechanics.

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The Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics : collected works 1955-1980 with commentary

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Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.

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William Harvey letter to Hugh Everett, 8-June-1977 with Everett's reply, 20-June-1977

Everett, Hugh

In 1977, Bill Harvey, a historian of science at the University of Edinburgh, wrote to Hugh Everett in conjunction to a book he was writing on the history of quantum mechanics. He asks Everett various questions about how he viewed his thesis then, in 1977, as well as to what degree Everett kept up with the literature on foundations of quantum mechanics. Everett answers both questions.

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The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

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Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.

Princeton University Press eBooks•Dec 31, 2012•51 citations
In the early 1970s, physicist and philosopher of physics Max Jammer began working on a follow up to his classic 1966 book, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. Jammer hoped that the new book, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective (1974), could contain some additional information on the Hugh Everett interpretation. Here he writes to Everett with some questions concerning Everett's intellectual development and the historical context in which Everett developed his interpretation.
In the early 1970s, physicist and philosopher of physics Max Jammer began working on a follow up to his classic 1966 book, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. Jammer hoped that the new book, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective (1974), could contain some additional information on the Hugh Everett interpretation. He wrote to Everett of August of 1973; here, Everett responds in some detail to Jammer's questions about his intellectual development and the origins of his thesis.
In the early 1970s, physicist and philosopher of physics Max Jammer began working on a follow up to his classic 1966 book, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. Jammer hoped that the new book, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective (1974), could contain some additional information on the Everett interpretation. This letter is Wheeler's reply to a letter from Jammer seeking Everett's contact information. It is interesting to note that the address Wheeler provides is incorrect – which explains why the letter in the archive from Jammer to Everett is dated almost 18 months later, with Jammer attributing Everett's correct address to DeWitt. It seems that Wheeler and Everett were largely not in contact by this time, though they would meet and correspond periodically over the next five or six years.
Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.
Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.