The Unlikely Buddha

There was a famous exchange between Ludwig Wittgenstein and  Elizabeth Anscombe He asked why people had once  thought the sun revolved around the earth?  She replied because it appeared that way. He then asked, what if the earth had benn rotated on its axis? It is sometimes asked what our everyday experience would be in the Many Worlds or Everette Formulation of quantum mechanics. In the Everette formulation, also known as the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, every possible outcome of a quantum event occurs in a separate universe. This means that there are an infinite number of universes, each with its own unique history and laws of physics. Our everyday experience would be the same in each of these universes, as we would only be aware of the universe in which we are currently living.  However, if we were to interact with a quantum system in a way that created a superposition of states, we would be able to experience different outcomes in different u...

In the Everett formulation of quantum mechanics, superconductivity can be described as a process in which all possible outcomes of a quantum measurement are realized in different branches of the wavefunction. In the case of superconductivity, the different branches of the wavefunction correspond to different configurations of the Cooper pairs, which are pairs of electrons that are bound together by the exchange of virtual photons.  When a superconductor is cooled below its critical temperature, all of the possible configurations of the Cooper pairs become equally likely, and the wavefunction of the superconductor splits into a huge number of branches, each corresponding to a different configuration of the Cooper pairs. In each branch of the wavefunction, the Cooper pairs are able to flow through the superconductor without any resistance. This is because the electrons in the Cooper pairs are perfectly synchronized, and they move together as a single unit. As a result, there is no...