---
title: "Many-worlds interpretation · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/many-worlds
description: "The many-worlds interpretation is Hugh Everett’s idea that the wave function never collapses."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Quantum mechanics

# Many-worlds interpretation

Definition

The many-worlds interpretation is Hugh Everett’s idea that the wave function never collapses. Every possible measurement result happens, in a branching multiverse.

On this site

The Many worlds time model. The computing needed doubles with each quantum event, and there are a great many events.

Role in the model

The Many worlds time model doubles the computing needed at every quantum event, and there are a great many. Apart from full entanglement, it’s the only setting that can push a scenario off the scale.

Related

[The measurement problem](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/measurement-problem)[Wave function](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/wave-function)[Superposition](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/superposition)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)