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ksvanhorn comments on What independence between ZFC and P vs NP would imply - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: alexflint 08 December 2011 02:30PM

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Comment author: shminux 09 December 2011 07:32:05AM *  0 points [-]

I suspect that he misinterprets, as it were, what an interpretation is, namely, a way of thinking that elucidates the underlying mathematical framework. He seems to think that different interpretations can make different predictions based on the same math:

We are led by the Copenhagen Interpretation to expect that the positions of the interference minima should have no particular significance, and that the wires should intercept 6% of the light they do for uniform illumination.

...

Thus, it appears that both the Copenhagen Interpretation and the Many-Worlds Interpretation have been falsified by experiment.

Does this mean that the theory of quantum mechanics has also been falsified? No indeed! The quantum formalism has no problem in predicting the Afshar result. A simple quantum mechanical calculation using the standard formalism shows that the wires should intercept only a very small fraction of the light. The problem encountered by the Copenhagen and Many-Worlds Interpretations is that the Afshar Experiment has identified a situation in which these popular interpretations of quantum mechanics are inconsistent with the quantum formalism itself.

I would say that, more likely than not, his mental model of what an interpretation is is different from what physicists tend to mean. It does not help that he has an ax to grind, as the author of his pet "transactional" interpretation.

Comment author: ksvanhorn 11 December 2011 02:35:15AM 0 points [-]

Reread this statement, which you quoted: "The problem encountered by the Copenhagen and Many-Worlds Interpretations is that the Afshar Experiment has identified a situation in which these popular interpretations of quantum mechanics are inconsistent with the quantum formalism itself."

The implication is that Copenhagen and Many-Worlds are not valid interpretations, since (he claims) they are inconsistent with the formalism. (I'm not sufficiently well-versed in QM to evaluate this claim, unfortunately.)