In the interpretation of QM, one of the divides is between ontic and epistemic interpretations of the wavefunction. Ontic interpretations of the wavefunction treat it as a thing, epistemic interpetations as an incomplete description or a tabulation of uncertainty, just like a probability distribution.
In the relational interpretation of QM, are the states understood as ontic or as epistemic? The passage you quote makes them sound epistemic: the cat knows but the observer outside the box doesn't, so the observer outside the box uses a different wavefunction. That undoubtedly implies that the wavefunction of the observer outside the box is epistemic, not ontic; the cat knows something that the outside observer doesn't, an aspect of reailty which is already definite even though it is not definite in the outside observer's description.
Or at least, this ought to imply that quantum state in the relational interpretation are epistemic. However, this is never explicitly stated, and instead meaningless locutions are adopted which make it sound as if the quantum states are to be regarded as ontic, but "relative".
There are certain very limited senses in which it makes sense to say that the state of something is relative. For example, we may be floating in space, and what is up to you may be down to me, so whether one object is above another object may be relative to an observer. But clearly such a dodge will not work for something like Schrodinger's cat. Either the cat is alive, dead, both, or neither. It can't be "alive for one observer and dead for another" and still be just one cat. But that is the ontological implication one gets, if "relational QM' is interpreted as an ontic interpertation.
On the other hand, if it is an epistemic interpretation, then it still hasn't answered the question, "what is the nature of reality? what is the physical ontology behind the formalism and the instrumental success?"
It can't be "alive for one observer and dead for another"
It can't in rQM:
"However, the comparison does not lead to contradiction because the comparison is itself a physical process that must be understood in the context of quantum mechanics. Indeed, O′ can physically interact with the electron and then with the l.e.d. (or, equivalently, the other way around). If, for instance, he finds the spin of the electron up, quantum mechanics predicts that he will then consistently find the l.e.d. on (because in the first measurement the state of t...
I have several questions related to this:
If you visit any Less Wrong page for the first time in a cookies-free browsing mode, you'll see this message for new users:
Here are the worst violators I see on that about page:
And on the sequences page:
This seems obviously false to me.
These may not seem like cultish statements to you, but keep in mind that you are one of the ones who decided to stick around. The typical mind fallacy may be at work. Clearly there is some population that thinks Less Wrong seems cultish, as evidenced by Google's autocomplete, and these look like good candidates for things that makes them think this.
We can fix this stuff easily, since they're both wiki pages, but I thought they were examples worth discussing.
In general, I think we could stand more community effort being put into improving our about page, which you can do now here. It's not that visible to veteran users, but it is very visible to newcomers. Note that it looks as though you'll have to click the little "Force reload from wiki" button on the about page itself for your changes to be published.