Introduction

Developed by Hugh Everett, III and his Ph.D. thesis advisor, John Wheeler ca. 1957, the idea of a "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics results from interpreting the wave function as not collapsing when a quantum system is observed. Instead, the observer is "split" into two states representing the binary outcome of the observation. The consequence is that there are now two worldlines, and so two universes: One in which the outcome was "true" and one in which the outcome was "false." This multiplicity of observers spawns whenever a quantum interaction takes place, leads to a multiplicity of "universes."

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External Links

• Biographical Sketch of Hugh Everett, III - MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Many-Worlds Interpretation -  Also known as MWI, the relative state formulation, theory of the universal wavefunction, parallel universes, many-universes interpretation or just many worlds. Wikipedia.
• Many-Worlds Interpretation - The Internet Encyclopedia of Science, David Darling, Ph.D.
• Multiverse - Wikipedia.
• Parrallel Universe - The Internet Encyclopedia of Science, David Darling, Ph.D.
• Physicist John Wheeler, legendary figure in 20th-century science, dies at age 96 - Princeton Weekly Bulletin April 21, 2008, Vol. 97, No. 24.

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