User talk:Michael C Price - Misplaced Pages

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Welcome!

Hello, Michael C Price, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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You did very nice edits on Many-worlds interpretation! Welcome to wikipedia! --DenisDiderot 10:44, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks DD -- glad you liked it. Thanks for the links. I'll probably confine myself straightforward textural edits for the near future whilst I get the hang of the metatools.--Michael C Price 12:09, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Many-worlds

I agree with your "compromise". An anonymous editor had changed MWI to MWT, which is acceptable to me at least provided some mention is made of that fact that it is also considered an interpretation. However, he also blanked a large portion of the article. An interpretation I regard as a mathematical semantics for a formal theory. In this view of course MW plays the role of a formal theory rather than a semantics.

Maybe we could change MWI to simply MW throughout the article. --CSTAR 14:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with MW being either an interpretation or a theory; it is both of course. It is unfortunate that each has perjorative connotations which is why people argue about the terms so much. Metatheory has the advantage of being more precise and comes with fewer negative associations. MWI has the historical primacy and is more acceptable to adherents of other interpretations. My own taste would be a mixture of MW, MWI and MWM throughout the article.

A bigger concern is that the MWI article is so inaccesable to the wider, non-technical audience. I'm still a wikipedian newbie so I'll have to leave large scale revisions to others for the moment.--Michael C Price 01:02, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. I'm partly to blame for that. --CSTAR 02:40, 30 April 2006 (UTC)--Michael C Price 00:40, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

And a good job you've done, thanks. Perhaps a non-technical "MW for dummies" section would be appropriate to complement the more technical stuff -- a sort of expanded overview? MW is "lucky" in that it is axiomatically more compact than the other interpretations/formulations of QM; someone with the technical QM background can more or less grasp the whole of MW by just changing their viewpoint (or is this too optimistic?) and the general "lay" inquirer is (presumably) only after a non-technical and more philosophical overview. Either way it suggests that a non-technical but detailed presentation is needed. --Michael C Price 09:57, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Dear Michael! Why do you attribute MWI to Bryce deWitt and R Neill Graham (on your user page), but not to Hugh Everett? --DenisDiderot 14:40, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Clarified now, I hope. I was refering to the authors of books, not papers. --Michael C Price 00:40, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Michael, what do think of the extensive additions to the article Many-worlds interpretation I did today? Maybe we can reverse the obscurantism on this article a bit. Feel free to make changes on what I wrote. --DenisDiderot 15:18, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Looks very good. I like the zipper/DNA example -- too few MWIists understand this point unfortunately. --Michael C Price 00:40, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Michael! I'm thinking of a further addition which explains in terms of the example given why an entanglement (so-called "which way information") prevents interference between two paths. --DenisDiderot 00:53, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Obscurantism? Isn't that just a wee bit too unfriendly :) --CSTAR 17:12, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Again such a meta-discussion? CSTAR, you are thin-skinned, I can tell. --DenisDiderot 18:37, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh well :)--CSTAR 18:42, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

CSTAR, it's the truth you are obscure -- I still haven't deciphered your recent contributions on the MWI discussion page and I have absolutely no doubt that most other people feel the same way. Try to remember what the world was like before you learnt all that math!! --Michael C Price 00:22, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Your many-worlds FAQ is great!

Dear Michael C. Price.

I just found your Everett FAQ in the web and I'm overwhelmed by the clarity of your treatment of the subject. Great work, and some very interesting deeper insights: I found the link between entropy and the number of entanglements especially interesting. This actually means that thermodynamic irreversibility and the irreversibility in quantum measurements really amount to the same thing!

Absolutely! --Michael C Price 00:45, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm very eager to learn more about this idea. Have you ever published anything about this in journals or do you know about anyone else who did?

I can't claim any originality -- Everett and deWitt saw the link between measurement and thermodynamics. The challenge is to express the concepts clearly.--Michael C Price 00:45, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks again for your great work! --DenisDiderot 00:15, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Feel free to cut and paste (and mangle) anything from the FAQ into Misplaced Pages. It's probably best if I don't do it myself since authors tend to lack objectivity about their own work.--Michael C Price 00:49, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll do so and I will also refer to your page. --DenisDiderot 12:56, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

user pages and user talk pages

In your user space, you have user pages (like User:MichaelCPrice) and user talk pages (like User talk:MichaelCPrice; this page). The user talk pages are for messages between users, the user pages are for the users themselves. You've left Michael D. Wolok a message on his user page, rather than his user talk page. This isn't the normal way to do things, and some people even consider it rude. But not to worry, I've moved your comment to the right place. -lethe 08:11, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks!!--Michael C Price 08:31, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Edit wars

You should be aware of the self-styled "certainty war" (in caps) sockpuppet warriors. We'll just have to block these individuals one by one.--CSTAR 01:45, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I've reverted three of the idiot's acts of vandalism -- his profile is fairly easy to spot. I was just looking up to see how to report vandals. Any guidance?--Michael C Price 01:48, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. This has also been discussed Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Physics#Certainty_principle. I have been reluctant to permanently block, but that seems to be the only possible course of action here.--CSTAR 01:57, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I would have no hesitation about permanently blocking pseudoscience crank vandals; they are not amenable to reason. Still just MHO -- I'm not an admin, and perhaps with that attitude I shouldn't be :-) --Michael C Price 02:12, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

No personal attacks please!

Dear Michael, I just wanted to let you know that I found your "you are incapable of NPOV" comment very offensive and wholly uncalled-for. I expect a professional to behave like one. Make your case, give your non-original research sources as ref.s and let the chips fall where they may... If I have inadvertently offended you personally I apologize. In return, I am not asking for an apology, but you must agree that civility is the foundation of any sincere debate. -- Prof. Afshar 03:29, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Your sig

How do you link your talk page into your signature? Let me know on my talk page, if possible' Thanks --Michael C Price 16:13, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Visit Special:Preferences, which will let you control all your Misplaced Pages viewing settings. In the first tab "User profile", in the field which reads "nickname", enter something like ] ]. For more information, visit WP:SIG. -lethe 16:22, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

--Michael C. Price talk 18:35, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

--]]] 18:36, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

--]]] 18:39, 18 June 2006 (UTC)