celeriac comments on Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical? - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 April 2008 07:06AM

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Comment author: celeriac 15 April 2008 05:55:21PM 0 points [-]

Bob doesn't care about a version of indistinguishability that restricts the relevant properties to those important for QM.

This doesn't seem right. Distinguishability should entail empirical distinguishability. If two particles are distinguishable in any sort of way that Bob cares about, I should be able to send them through a device that shows a green light for tagged particle A and a red light for tagged particle B. But "emitting green light" and "emitting red light" are, obviously, different quantum configurations.

What is an example of a distinguishability that is not allowed to entail quantum distinguishability, and why should Bob care?