Is the Born Rule Anthropically Determined?

Michael B. Weissman

Published 2014-03-27Version 1

I argue that various derivations of the Born probability rule within strictly unitary quantum mechanics implicitly use anthropic constraints on the properties of the probabilities, but without proposing an ensemble from which those constraints limit a selection. An argument by Mallah obtains the Born probabilities explicitly for standard unitary dynamics but via postulating a hypothetical extra noise-like component of the quantum state. I argue that the implicit anthropic constraints required for well-behaved probability rules would select for a state of the sort Mallah proposes.