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Ben_Jones comments on Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical? - Less Wrong
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And making the claim that one aspect of a theory being wrong invalidates the whole, is just as presumptuous as saying that a theory is simply correct, no questions.
Well that's just plain wrong.
A theory that says 'x is true, but it implies y: No y, no x' can be useful. QM is the most experimentally validated theory we have, but one of its implications is the relative identity of quanta. Eliezer will whack me if he doesn't like this, but particles in quantum mechanics are, by theoretical definition, identical. Any further discoveries that suggest otherwise break our well-tested theory of QM, rather than adding some unexpected detail to it.
Yes, but isn't that what this hypothetical philosopher ought to be arguing, if he is not already. That it is entirely possible that new things will be discovered that break this well tested theory, therefore you cannot say that you have proven these particles to be identical, merely that as best we know currently, if our theories are correct, then they are identical.