Parallel Universes (the Forum/BSPS Lecture)

Is Schrödinger’s cat alive or dead? This thought experiment was devised to illustrate a fundamental puzzle in quantum mechanics. A radical solution is that the cat is both alive and dead, but in different, parallel universes. This is the ‘many-worlds interpretation’ of quantum mechanics and our panel of philosophers and physicists will discuss why it is controversial and its strange consequences.

Speakers
Fay Dowker, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Imperial College London
Eleanor Knox, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, King’s College London
Simon Saunders, Professor of Philosophy of Physics, University of Oxford

Chair
Jonathan Birch, Fellow, The Forum; Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE

Organised in conjunction with the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.