[SEQ RERUN] Spooky Action at a Distance

MinibearRex

Today's post, Spooky Action at a Distance: The No-Communication Theorem was originally published on 05 May 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

As Einstein argued long ago, the quantum physics of his era - that is, the single-global-world interpretation of quantum physics, in which experiments have single unique random results - violates Special Relativity; it imposes a preferred space of simultaneity and requires a mysterious influence to be transmitted faster than light; which mysterious influence can never be used to transmit any useful information. Getting rid of the single global world dispels this mystery and puts everything back to normal again.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).

This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Bell's Theorem: No EPR "Reality", and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, Spooky Action at a Distance: The No-Communication Theorem was originally published on 05 May 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

As Einstein argued long ago, the quantum physics of his era - that is, the single-global-world interpretation of quantum physics, in which experiments have single unique random results - violates Special Relativity; it imposes a preferred space of simultaneity and requires a mysterious influence to be transmitted faster than light; which mysterious influence can never be used to transmit any useful information. Getting rid of the single global world dispels this mystery and puts everything back to normal again.

The form of MWI advocated there is (I think) the best interpretation available for non-relativistic QM.

That's a matter of taste, since there is no way to resolve this except on aesthetic grounds.

However, many of the basic lessons of the sequence no longer apply when we are dealing with QFT.

Indeed. Including the quote in the OP, which makes no sense as stated.

our best bet is to build a broadly MWI-like non-collapse interpretation for QFT

Or else, dispense with interpretations and do physics instead.

That's a matter of taste, since there is no way to resolve this except on aesthetic grounds.

MWI is not empirically equivalent to all other interpretations of QM. It makes different predictions from the Copenhagen interpretation, for instance. Even if this were not the case, we distinguish between empirically equivalent theories on scientific grounds all the time. Neo-Lorentzian theory is empirically equivalent to the special theory of relativity, but I think (and most scientists agree) that there are good non-empirical grounds for preferring the special... (read more)

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