Max comments on Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical? - Less Wrong
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Comments (106)
I think Eliezer wasn't specific enough what he meant by "indistinguishable". In the QM and thermodynamics/chemistry sense the particles are indistinguishable iff they are _completely_ described by their quantum states - which are just finite sets of numbers. The properties of statistics change a lot when moving from distinc to non-distinct particles - think of permutations versus combinations.