HughRistik comments on Privileging the Hypothesis - Less Wrong

57 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 September 2009 12:40AM

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Comment author: shminux 04 March 2013 09:33:22PM *  -2 points [-]

But the 'can never' criterion is clearly false of some of the 'interpretations' we're talking about, and only contingently and ambiguously true of any of them.

Interpretations are designed to give the same predictions as can be inferred from a no-interpretation math, otherwise they would be called theories.

What are you building into 'right'/'wrong' here?

Experimentally testable new predictions. No more, no less.

Comment author: EHeller 04 March 2013 09:39:12PM *  2 points [-]

Interpretations are designed to give the same predictions as can be inferred from a no-interpretation math, otherwise they would be called theories.

This isn't necessarily true. Consider that the GRW interpretation has been pretty much falsified by Van Harlingen's work at UIUC (macroscopic current superposition in SQUIDs). Most of the interpretations rely on different postulates than traditional Copenhagen quantum so there can be (and generally are) differences. However, to date, most of those differences aren't measurable.

Similarly, we call many-worlds an "interpretation" even though no one has figured out how to actually make predictions with it. The difference between "interpretation" and "theory" is a bit loose.