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by yters 2032 days ago
If quantum is really random, then our universe has infinite Kolmogorov complexity.
4 comments

Not quite.

Under the many-world interpretation, when you send a photon through a half sieved mirror, the universe splits in one version where the photon goes through, and one universe where the photon doesn't. This is all very deterministic.

What the researcher subjectively observe however is another matter. If the universe splits, so does the researcher. The problem of observing outcomes turns into an anthropy problem: if I split myself in two copies, in which copy am I likeliest to find myself into? I'm not sure making bets about that even makes sense: which copy I find myself into has no bearing in the final state of the universe.

Most observers will find themselves in universes with infinite kolmogorov complexity.
Care to explain why?
Most bitstrings are not compressible, so if we look at all the observers across the splitting universes watching a continuous quantum coin flip, most will observe a coin flip sequence that is not compressible, so will observe a constant increase in Kolmogorov complexity.
Is Newtonian mechanics real? Well, its not strictly real, but it's apparently real enough for engineering cars, planes, and rockets.

So even if quantum is really random, I'd bet an unbiased coin will still land on heads with 50% probability every time.

No, just because a process is probabilistic, in does not immediately follow that it has infinite Kolmogorov complexity. For example the probabilistic effects could cancel out.
quantum is not the same as random, this analogy breaks down quickly as you try to explain the experimental results