Probability of Self-Location in the Framework of the Many-Worlds Interpretation

The growing interest in the concept of probability of self-location of a conscious agent has created multiple controversies. Considering David Albert’s setup in which he described his worries about consistency of the concept, I identify the sources of these controversies and argue that defining “sel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lev Vaidman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Entropy
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/4/416
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Summary:The growing interest in the concept of probability of self-location of a conscious agent has created multiple controversies. Considering David Albert’s setup in which he described his worries about consistency of the concept, I identify the sources of these controversies and argue that defining “self” in an operational way provides a satisfactory meaning for the probability of self-location of an agent in a quantum world. It keeps the nontrivial feature of having subjective ignorance of self-location without ignorance about the state of the universe. It also allows defining the Born rule in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and proving it from some natural assumptions.
ISSN:1099-4300