Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-30 Thread John Clark
On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 5:05 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:

>> Branch counting won't work if you assume there are an infinite number of
>> worlds but one and only one Mr.You, but if there is also an infinite number
>> of Brent Meekers who physically differ from each other in ways that are so
>> sub microscopically tiny they make no subjective difference it does work.
>
>

*> Right, provided you specify that the entanglement with result X vs Y be
> random, independently distributed over the infinite number. *
>

If Schrodinger's equation is correct, and Many Worlds insists it is, then
there is nothing random about it, every entanglement between X and Y that
the laws of physics say could happen does happen.

* > But to me that seems less intuitive than just the Born Rule. *
>

We don't need a mathematical proof or even intuition to know that the Born
Rule is correct, we know it from experiment.


> *> I know Everettians will say the infinite branches of Brent Meeker are
> just different projections of the World Vector and although we can ignore
> all the projections except the one we observed, by keeping all the
> unobserved ones we've avoided saying the wave function collapsed.  We can't
> say exactly where and when, but we're sure there was a continuous process
> of splitting.*
>

We never observed something being in 2 contradictory states at the same
time so we know there must be a continuous process of splitting. However we
do sometimes observe very very strange things when a world splits into
contradictory states for a tiny fraction of a second and then recombines
back into one world, for example when we observed the very odd goings-on in
the double slit experiment. This bizarre effect is pretty easy to see with
small things like photons and electrons but the larger the object is the
more difficult it is to observe it doing these peculiar things. According
to Many Worlds this is because if the only difference between 2 worlds is
that one electron is displaced 1 inch further to the left than it is in the
other universe then it's not too difficult to arrange things so that the 2
worlds become identical again and thus merge, but to do the same thing with
something as large as a baseball would be an astronomical number to an
astronomical power more difficult accomplish, so we (almost) never see a
baseball do strange things and Newton works just fine.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis


A string that is 6 inches long and one 7 inches long both have an infinite
> number of points, but if I put 80 of the 6 inch strings into a hat and 20
> of the 7 inch ones and are blindfolded close and pick one out of the hat at
> random and asked to make a bet on which sort of string I picked I would
> place the odds at a 80% chance it would be 6 inches and 20% it would be 7
> inches. And if I consistently played that game and used those odds I would
> soon make a lot of money.
>

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-23 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/23/2022 5:23 AM, John Clark wrote:



On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 4:28 PM Brent Meeker  
wrote:


/> I don't see how MWI adds to intuitive understanding of the Born
rule.  It's not agreed among MWI advocates how different outcomes
occur with different weights (which is just another "probability"
measure) or in different numbers so there can be branch counting./


Branch counting won't work if you assume there are an infinite number 
of worlds but one and only one Mr.You, but if there is also an 
infinite number of Brent Meekers who physically differ from each other 
in ways that are so sub microscopically tiny they make no subjective 
difference it does work.


Right, provided you specify that the entanglement with result X vs Y be 
random, independently distributed over the infinite number.  But to me 
that seems less intuitive than just the Born Rule.  I know Everettians 
will say the infinite branches of Brent Meeker are just different 
projections of the World Vector and although we can ignore all the 
projections except the one we observed, by keeping all the unobserved 
ones we've avoided saying the wave function collapsed. We can't say 
exactly where and when, but we're sure there was a continuous process of 
splitting.


Brent

A string that is 6 inches long and one 7 inches long both have an 
infinite number of points, but if I put 80 of the 6 inch strings into 
a hat and 20 of the 7 inch ones and are blindfolded close and pick one 
out of the hat at random and asked to make a bet on which sort of 
string I picked I would place the odds at a 80% chance it would be 6 
inches and 20% it would be 7 inches. And if I consistently played that 
game and used those odds I would soon make a lot of money.


John K Clark    See what's on my new list at Extropolis 


 muq

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-23 Thread John Clark
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 4:28 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:

*>I have no problem with calculating probabilities.  *


I should hope not!

*> Apparently though some people experience existential angst when told the
> world isn't deterministic.*


True, but even more people experience existential angst when told that Mr.
I is not unique. I believe that is the only reason Many Worlds did not not
become mainstream many decades ago.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

7cx

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-23 Thread John Clark
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 4:28 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:

*> I don't see how MWI adds to intuitive understanding of the Born rule.
> It's not agreed among MWI advocates how different outcomes occur with
> different weights (which is just another "probability" measure) or in
> different numbers so there can be branch counting.*


Branch counting won't work if you assume there are an infinite number of
worlds but one and only one Mr.You, but if there is also an infinite number
of Brent Meekers who physically differ from each other in ways that are so
sub microscopically tiny they make no subjective difference it does work. A
string that is 6 inches long and one 7 inches long both have an infinite
number of points, but if I put 80 of the 6 inch strings into a hat and 20
of the 7 inch ones and are blindfolded close and pick one out of the hat at
random and asked to make a bet on which sort of string I picked I would
place the odds at a 80% chance it would be 6 inches and 20% it would be 7
inches. And if I consistently played that game and used those odds I would
soon make a lot of money.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

   muq

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-23 Thread Lawrence Crowell
On Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 2:40:09 PM UTC-6 jessem wrote:

> One result that might lend itself to a hypothetical frequentist take on QM 
> probabilities is discussed by David Z Albert on p. 237-238 of the book The 
> Cosmos of Science, those pages can be read at 
> https://books.google.com/books?id=_HgF3wfADJIC=PP1=PA238#v=onepage=false
>  
> . He considers a scenario where a measuring device is interacting with an 
> infinite series of identically prepared quantum systems, and creating a 
> "pointer state" that tells you just the fraction of those systems that 
> showed a certain result (like an electron being spin-up), and he considers 
> what happens if we analyze this scenario without invoking the collapse 
> postulate or the Born rule, instead just modeling the measurements as 
> entanglement between the measuring system and the system being measured. 
> After a finite number of trials the pointer will be in a superposition of 
> states, but in the infinite limit, all the amplitude becomes concentrated 
> on the eigenstate of the pointer measurement operator where the pointer 
> shows the correct quantum-mechanical probability (for example, "1/2 of all 
> trials showed spin-up").
>
> This type of collapse-free derivation of something like probability in the 
> infinite limit is also discussed in section 5 of the paper at 
> https://www.academia.edu/6975159/Quantum_dispositions_and_the_notion_of_measurement
>  
> starting on p. 12, apparently the result is known as "Mittelstaedt's 
> theorem". I suppose this result can't really explain why we seem to see 
> definite outcomes (as opposed to superpositions) after a finite number of 
> trials without some additional QM interpretation, but it at least has a 
> "flavor" reminiscent of hypothetical frequentism.
>
>
I am not one to engage a lot in these arguments. I see quantum mechanics 
has having a limited number of postulates. These are:

Quantum amplitudes are complex valued and have modulus squares that are 
probabilities.

Observable outcomes are the eigenvalues of Hermitian or self-adjoint 
operators Aψ = aψ.

Transformations of quantum states and their evolution are defined by 
unitary operators ψ' = Uψ and ψ(t) = U(t)ψ(0), which are generated by 
self-adjoint operators.

The Born rule, which is similar to the Euclid 5th axiom in that people 
think it should be provable from the other 3 axioms.

Whether QM is Bayesian or frequentist is rather related to the question of 
whether it is ψ-epistemic or ψ-ontic respectively. I do not think either 
stance is provable within the structure of QM, or observable by 
experimentation. The Copenhagen and Qubism interpretations are 
ψ-epistemological while the Everettian Many Worlds, transactional, Bohm and 
some others are ψ-ontological interpretations. Which ever one you want you 
can freely choose. I have some rather deep ideas about this with respect to 
the unprovability of quantum interpretations.

LC
 

> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 10:54 AM Lawrence Crowell <
> goldenfield...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There are two concepts of probability and statistics, Bayesianism and 
>> frequentism (orthodox view), which formulate probability in somewhat 
>> different ways. I would say that quantum mechanics might be the most 
>> rigorous definition of probability. I would be tempted to say it is more 
>> Bayesian than frequentist. 
>>
>> LC
>>
>> On Monday, November 21, 2022 at 8:15:19 PM UTC-6 smi...@zonnet.nl wrote:
>>
>>> On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote: 
>>> > On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote: 
>>> >> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here 
>>> that 
>>> >> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact 
>>> >> statement: 
>>> >> 
>>> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s 
>>> >> 
>>> >> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
>>> >> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true. 
>>> > 
>>> > Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the 
>>> > theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the 
>>> > scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic. 
>>> > 
>>> > Brent 
>>>
>>> But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So, that 
>>> then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic. 
>>>
>>> Saibal 
>>>
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>> 
>> .
>>
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Brent Meeker
"God not only plays dice, he sometimes throws them where they can't be 
seen."

    --- Stephen Hawking

On 11/22/2022 4:41 PM, Alan Grayson wrote:
As I have pointed out previously, the problem with probability as an 
ultimate description of the universe, is that it means the universe is 
*unintelligible*. I mean, it implies there is no *process* to 
understand why, when we measurement something, we get what we get. So 
I am in good company; God doesn't play dice with the universe. AG


On Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 2:28:29 PM UTC-7 meeke...@gmail.com 
wrote:




On 11/22/2022 3:07 AM, John Clark wrote:

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 6:31 PM Brent Meeker 
wrote:

>> some call Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum
mechanics, it has no silly bells and whistles cluttering
things up. And that's the sort of thing William of Ockham
would approve of.


/> It has an infinite number of other worlds, most differing
from this world only in unobservable ways./


Yes.

>/In comparison, taking the Born rule to mean what it says
seems like modest addition to the theory.
/


From experimentation we know for a fact the Born Rule means what
it says and is correct, but if you are not satisfied with the
"shut up and calculate" philosophy and if there were NOT "/an
infinite number of other worlds most differing from this world
only in unobservable ways/" then you're out of luck; if that's
true I don't think there would be any hope of achieving an
intuitive understanding of why the Born Rule is correct


I don't see how MWI adds to intuitive understanding of the Born
rule.  It's not agreed among MWI advocates how different outcomes
occur with different weights (which is just another "probability"
measure) or in different numbers so there can be branch counting.



, and so you must instead just learn to be satisfied with shut up
and calculate.


I have no problem with calculating probabilities. Apparently
though some people experience existential angst when told the
world isn't deterministic.

Brent



After all, many philosophers, including some really great ones
like Dirac, are just not interested in philosophy.

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at Extropolis


6te

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Alan Grayson
As I have pointed out previously, the problem with probability as an 
ultimate description of the universe, is that it means the universe is 
*unintelligible*. I mean, it implies there is no *process* to understand 
why, when we measurement something, we get what we get. So I am in good 
company; God doesn't play dice with the universe. AG

On Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 2:28:29 PM UTC-7 meeke...@gmail.com wrote:

>
>
> On 11/22/2022 3:07 AM, John Clark wrote:
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 6:31 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:
>  
>
>> >> some call Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum mechanics, it 
>>> has no silly bells and whistles cluttering things up. And that's the sort 
>>> of thing William of Ockham would approve of.
>>
>>
>> * > It has an infinite number of other worlds, most differing from this 
>> world only in unobservable ways.*
>>
>
> Yes.
>  
>
>>  >
>> * In comparison, taking the Born rule to mean what it says seems like 
>> modest addition to the theory. *
>>
>
> From experimentation we know for a fact the Born Rule means what it says 
> and is correct, but if you are not satisfied with the "shut up and 
> calculate" philosophy and if there were NOT "*an infinite number of other 
> worlds most differing from this world only in unobservable ways*" then 
> you're out of luck; if that's true I don't think there would be any hope 
> of achieving an intuitive understanding of why the Born Rule is correct
>
>
> I don't see how MWI adds to intuitive understanding of the Born rule.  
> It's not agreed among MWI advocates how different outcomes occur with 
> different weights (which is just another "probability" measure) or in 
> different numbers so there can be branch counting.
>
>
> , and so you must instead just learn to be satisfied with shut up and 
> calculate. 
>
>
> I have no problem with calculating probabilities.  Apparently though some 
> people experience existential angst when told the world isn't deterministic.
>
> Brent
>
>
> After all, many philosophers, including some really great ones like Dirac, 
> are just not interested in philosophy. 
>
>   John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis 
> 
>
> 6te 
>
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>  
> 
> .
>
>
>

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 9:49 AM Brent Meeker  wrote:

> I think the important point is that probability theory is just
> mathematics, like calculus or linear algebra.  It has applications in which
> it is given different interpretations: frequentism, degree of belief,
> measure, decision theory, etc.  Often its application entails moving from
> one interpretation to another.
>
> Brent
>

I agree that probability is just a piece of mathematics, which is why I
pointed out to Saibal that Deutsch's argument that probability is not 'in'
the physical world (and therefore should be eliminated from physics)
applies equally well to mathematics. The idea that one can do physics
without mathematics is just absurd, which all goes to show that Deutsch's
argument is spurious.

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Brent Meeker
I think the important point is that probability theory is just 
mathematics, like calculus or linear algebra.  It has applications in 
which it is given different interpretations: frequentism, degree of 
belief, measure, decision theory, etc.  Often its application entails 
moving from one interpretation to another.


Brent

On 11/22/2022 7:54 AM, Lawrence Crowell wrote:
There are two concepts of probability and statistics, Bayesianism and 
frequentism (orthodox view), which formulate probability in somewhat 
different ways. I would say that quantum mechanics might be the most 
rigorous definition of probability. I would be tempted to say it is 
more Bayesian than frequentist.


LC

On Monday, November 21, 2022 at 8:15:19 PM UTC-6 smi...@zonnet.nl wrote:

On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote:
> On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
>> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains
here that
>> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact
>> statement:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

>>
>> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as
such a
>> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly
true.
>
> Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements. Why should
the
> theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the
> scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical
logic.
>
> Brent

But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So,
that
then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic.

Saibal

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/22/2022 3:07 AM, John Clark wrote:
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 6:31 PM Brent Meeker  
wrote:


>> some call Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum
mechanics, it has no silly bells and whistles cluttering
things up. And that's the sort of thing William of Ockham
would approve of.


/> It has an infinite number of other worlds, most differing from
this world only in unobservable ways./


Yes.

>/In comparison, taking the Born rule to mean what it says seems
like modest addition to the theory.
/


From experimentation we know for a fact the Born Rule means what it 
says and is correct, but if you are not satisfied with the "shut up 
and calculate" philosophy and if there were NOT "/an infinite number 
of other worlds most differing from this world only in unobservable 
ways/" then you're out of luck; if that's true I don't think there 
would be any hope of achieving an intuitive understanding of why the 
Born Rule is correct


I don't see how MWI adds to intuitive understanding of the Born rule.  
It's not agreed among MWI advocates how different outcomes occur with 
different weights (which is just another "probability" measure) or in 
different numbers so there can be branch counting.


, and so you must instead just learn to be satisfied with shut up and 
calculate.


I have no problem with calculating probabilities.  Apparently though 
some people experience existential angst when told the world isn't 
deterministic.


Brent


After all, many philosophers, including some really great ones like 
Dirac, are just not interested in philosophy.


John K Clark    See what's on my new list at Extropolis 



6te

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Jesse Mazer
One result that might lend itself to a hypothetical frequentist take on QM
probabilities is discussed by David Z Albert on p. 237-238 of the book The
Cosmos of Science, those pages can be read at
https://books.google.com/books?id=_HgF3wfADJIC=PP1=PA238#v=onepage=false
. He considers a scenario where a measuring device is interacting with an
infinite series of identically prepared quantum systems, and creating a
"pointer state" that tells you just the fraction of those systems that
showed a certain result (like an electron being spin-up), and he considers
what happens if we analyze this scenario without invoking the collapse
postulate or the Born rule, instead just modeling the measurements as
entanglement between the measuring system and the system being measured.
After a finite number of trials the pointer will be in a superposition of
states, but in the infinite limit, all the amplitude becomes concentrated
on the eigenstate of the pointer measurement operator where the pointer
shows the correct quantum-mechanical probability (for example, "1/2 of all
trials showed spin-up").

This type of collapse-free derivation of something like probability in the
infinite limit is also discussed in section 5 of the paper at
https://www.academia.edu/6975159/Quantum_dispositions_and_the_notion_of_measurement
starting on p. 12, apparently the result is known as "Mittelstaedt's
theorem". I suppose this result can't really explain why we seem to see
definite outcomes (as opposed to superpositions) after a finite number of
trials without some additional QM interpretation, but it at least has a
"flavor" reminiscent of hypothetical frequentism.

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 10:54 AM Lawrence Crowell <
goldenfieldquaterni...@gmail.com> wrote:

> There are two concepts of probability and statistics, Bayesianism and
> frequentism (orthodox view), which formulate probability in somewhat
> different ways. I would say that quantum mechanics might be the most
> rigorous definition of probability. I would be tempted to say it is more
> Bayesian than frequentist.
>
> LC
>
> On Monday, November 21, 2022 at 8:15:19 PM UTC-6 smi...@zonnet.nl wrote:
>
>> On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote:
>> > On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
>> >> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that
>> >> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact
>> >> statement:
>> >>
>> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s
>> >>
>> >> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a
>> >> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.
>> >
>> > Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the
>> > theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the
>> > scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic.
>> >
>> > Brent
>>
>> But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So, that
>> then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic.
>>
>> Saibal
>>
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread Lawrence Crowell
There are two concepts of probability and statistics, Bayesianism and 
frequentism (orthodox view), which formulate probability in somewhat 
different ways. I would say that quantum mechanics might be the most 
rigorous definition of probability. I would be tempted to say it is more 
Bayesian than frequentist. 

LC

On Monday, November 21, 2022 at 8:15:19 PM UTC-6 smi...@zonnet.nl wrote:

> On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote:
> > On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
> >> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that 
> >> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact 
> >> statement:
> >> 
> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s
> >> 
> >> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
> >> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.
> > 
> > Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the
> > theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the
> > scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic.
> > 
> > Brent
>
> But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So, that 
> then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic.
>
> Saibal
>

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread John Clark
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:37 AM Bruce Kellett 
wrote:

*> Temporal ordering implies that we have actually completed an infinite
> series of tosses, and that is never possible. *


Calculus always involves an infinite series and we can't calculate all of
those, but we can figure out if an infinite series converges or not and if
it does what it converges to. Do you think calculus is not "justified"?

*> We then have to assume that the first N trials form a "typical" subset,
> and how do you ever justify that?*


Physics has something mathematics does not, experimentation. So the answer
to your question is simple, if it works it's justified.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

hxc

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread John Clark
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 8:54 PM Bruce Kellett  wrote:

*> What is a probability?*


Something that is always positive and never negative, and always adds up to
exactly 1, and something that enables us to make the best possible guess
about what will happen when faced with situations in which we have
incomplete knowledge.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

q0o

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread John Clark
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 7:38 PM Bruce Kellett  wrote:

> *Testing is not a theoretical grounding of the theory.*
>

WHAT! This is physics not pure mathematics, in science theory must always
take the backseat, experiment is the ultimate judge about who is correct.
It makes no difference how beautiful a theory is, testing is the ONLY way
to ground a theory. It's true that Many Worlds has not been grounded by
experimentation but it has come closer to doing so than any other quantum
interpretation if you don't count "shut up and calculate" and its
euphemistic twin Quantum Bayesianism. And I don't count them because
they're not really interpretations, they're just giving up.

 John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

jgu

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-22 Thread John Clark
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 6:31 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:


> >> some call Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum mechanics, it
>> has no silly bells and whistles cluttering things up. And that's the sort
>> of thing William of Ockham would approve of.
>
>
> * > It has an infinite number of other worlds, most differing from this
> world only in unobservable ways.*
>

Yes.


>  >
> * In comparison, taking the Born rule to mean what it says seems like
> modest addition to the theory.*
>

>From experimentation we know for a fact the Born Rule means what it says
and is correct, but if you are not satisfied with the "shut up and
calculate" philosophy and if there were NOT "*an infinite number of other
worlds most differing from this world only in unobservable ways*" then
you're out of luck; if that's true I don't think there would be any hope of
achieving an intuitive understanding of why the Born Rule is correct, and
so you must instead just learn to be satisfied with shut up and calculate.
After all, many philosophers, including some really great ones like Dirac,
are just not interested in philosophy.

  John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis


6te

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/21/2022 9:37 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 3:57 PM Jesse Mazer  wrote:

What about the idea of grounding the notion of probability in
terms of the frequency in the limit of a hypothetical infinite
series of trials, what philosophers call "hypothetical
frequentism"? The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy discussion
of this at
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/#FreInt
notes the objection that the limit depends on the order we count
the trials, but it seems pretty natural to use temporal ordering
in this case. Aside from the philosophical objection that we don't
have any clear a priori justification for privileging temporal
ordering in this way, are there any objections of a more technical
nature to hypothetical frequentism with temporal ordering
(scenarios where it would give you a different answer from
standard probability theory), or are the objections purely
philosophical?


The standard trouble with the hypothetical infinite series of trials 
is that we have to define the probability in terms of subsequences, 
since we can't actually realize an infinite series. In order for these 
subsequences to give (approximately) the same probability as the 
hypothetical infinite series, the subsequences have to be "typical", 
and "typical" can only be defined probabilistically, so we are back 
with the problem of circularity.


Temporal ordering of the sequence is also somewhat arbitrary, since if 
we order a series of coin tosses according to magnitude (heads = 0, 
tails = 1), then most subsequences will not be "typical" and will give 
spurious results. Temporal ordering implies that we have actually 
completed an infinite series of tosses, and that is never possible. We 
then have to assume that the first N trials form a "typical" subset, 
and how do you ever justify that?


We did a lot statistical mechanics taking the limit of many 
states/particles etc.  without worrying that the experiments were never 
infinite.


Brent

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Jesse Mazer
I don't see why you need the subsequences to be "typical" if you are using
temporal ordering--for example if you want to define the probability of
heads, you can define f_N as the fraction of flips that came up heads in
the first N trials of the temporal ordering, then consider the limit as N
approaches infinity. Any specific value of N may be highly atypical while
the infinite limit is still 1/2. So again, is the objection just the
philosophical one that temporal ordering seems "arbitrary", and/or some
kind of philosophical objection to defining probability in terms of
a complete infinite series of trials even though this is explicitly a
"hypothetical" definition?

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:37 AM Bruce Kellett 
wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 3:57 PM Jesse Mazer  wrote:
>
>> What about the idea of grounding the notion of probability in terms of
>> the frequency in the limit of a hypothetical infinite series of trials,
>> what philosophers call "hypothetical frequentism"? The Stanford
>> Encyclopedia of Philosophy discussion of this at
>> https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/#FreInt notes
>> the objection that the limit depends on the order we count the trials, but
>> it seems pretty natural to use temporal ordering in this case. Aside from
>> the philosophical objection that we don't have any clear a priori
>> justification for privileging temporal ordering in this way, are there any
>> objections of a more technical nature to hypothetical frequentism with
>> temporal ordering (scenarios where it would give you a different answer
>> from standard probability theory), or are the objections purely
>> philosophical?
>>
>
> The standard trouble with the hypothetical infinite series of trials is
> that we have to define the probability in terms of subsequences, since we
> can't actually realize an infinite series. In order for these subsequences
> to give (approximately) the same probability as the hypothetical infinite
> series, the subsequences have to be "typical", and "typical" can only be
> defined probabilistically, so we are back with the problem of circularity.
>
> Temporal ordering of the sequence is also somewhat arbitrary, since if we
> order a series of coin tosses according to magnitude (heads = 0, tails =
> 1), then most subsequences will not be "typical" and will give spurious
> results. Temporal ordering implies that we have actually completed an
> infinite series of tosses, and that is never possible. We then have to
> assume that the first N trials form a "typical" subset, and how do you ever
> justify that?
>
> Bruce
>
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> .
>

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 3:57 PM Jesse Mazer  wrote:

> What about the idea of grounding the notion of probability in terms of the
> frequency in the limit of a hypothetical infinite series of trials, what
> philosophers call "hypothetical frequentism"? The Stanford Encyclopedia of
> Philosophy discussion of this at
> https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/#FreInt notes
> the objection that the limit depends on the order we count the trials, but
> it seems pretty natural to use temporal ordering in this case. Aside from
> the philosophical objection that we don't have any clear a priori
> justification for privileging temporal ordering in this way, are there any
> objections of a more technical nature to hypothetical frequentism with
> temporal ordering (scenarios where it would give you a different answer
> from standard probability theory), or are the objections purely
> philosophical?
>

The standard trouble with the hypothetical infinite series of trials is
that we have to define the probability in terms of subsequences, since we
can't actually realize an infinite series. In order for these subsequences
to give (approximately) the same probability as the hypothetical infinite
series, the subsequences have to be "typical", and "typical" can only be
defined probabilistically, so we are back with the problem of circularity.

Temporal ordering of the sequence is also somewhat arbitrary, since if we
order a series of coin tosses according to magnitude (heads = 0, tails =
1), then most subsequences will not be "typical" and will give spurious
results. Temporal ordering implies that we have actually completed an
infinite series of tosses, and that is never possible. We then have to
assume that the first N trials form a "typical" subset, and how do you ever
justify that?

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Jesse Mazer
What about the idea of grounding the notion of probability in terms of the
frequency in the limit of a hypothetical infinite series of trials, what
philosophers call "hypothetical frequentism"? The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy discussion of this at
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/#FreInt notes the
objection that the limit depends on the order we count the trials, but it
seems pretty natural to use temporal ordering in this case. Aside from the
philosophical objection that we don't have any clear a priori justification
for privileging temporal ordering in this way, are there any objections of
a more technical nature to hypothetical frequentism with temporal ordering
(scenarios where it would give you a different answer from standard
probability theory), or are the objections purely philosophical?

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 7:33 PM Bruce Kellett  wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:08 AM Brent Meeker 
> wrote:
>
>> He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability
>> statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other gamblers".
>> Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch of definite
>> assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.
>>
>
> His critique of frequentism is just a recap of arguments that are well
> known -- you cannot ground probability theory in frequentism, or the idea
> that probabilities are nothing more than ratios of long-run frequencies.
> Long-run frequencies might approximate the probabilities, but they cannot
> be used to ground probability theory -- for well known reasons. I agree
> that he goes off on a number of irrelevant tangents, and he is wrong to
> suppose that frequentism is a main-stream theory of probability (at least,
> these days).
>
> Bruce
>
> On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:
>>
>>> Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained
>>> here:
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc
>>
>>
>> I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't, despite
>> his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For example, in quantum
>> mechanics, he has not explained why, if one measures the z-spin of a
>> spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one
>> result -- either z-spin-up or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated
>> probability, one should be able to explain which result one gets, and why.
>> It is no solution to say that with many-worlds, that both results are
>> obtained by disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just
>> one copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual
>> separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only
>> z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable
>> concept of probability and the Born rule.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/21/2022 5:54 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:44 PM Brent Meeker  
wrote:


On 11/21/2022 4:38 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:35 AM Brent Meeker
 wrote:


But frequencies are how we test probabilistic theories.


Testing is not a theoretical grounding of the theory.


It's not the axiomatic ground of Kolmogorov's theory.  But so
what?  We tested Euclid's theory of geometry by making
measurements which weren't in his axioms.  That doesn't mean
Euclid's wasn't a good theory of geometry.  I can see Deutsch
crossing off Pythagora's theorem saying, "No matter how precise
our instruments they only yield rational quantities!"  Physics is
not mathematics and it's never going to have data to infinitely
many decimal places.  That frequencies only yield rational number
approximations to Born rule predictions doesn't seem like a big
deal to me.


What is a probability? We can't define it as a limiting frequency, 
since repeats of a sequence of measurements of a spin are going to 
give a range of answers for the frequency of spin-up, and this 
sequence converges to some limit only in probability. That is then 
circular -- probability is defined in terms of probability.


But in fact we will reject a theory that predicts that the observed data 
is very improbable.




Perhaps 'probability' is a primitive concept -- not definable in terms 
of anything physical. Nevertheless, like language, it is essential for 
our understanding of our experience of the world.


I think it is term that refers to different things in different 
contexts, like "energy" or "distance".  It has a definition is 
mathematics, but that's not the same as it's operational definition in 
physics or law or finance.  It can be defined in terms of symmetry in 
physics, as a die is fair if the probability of each face is independent 
and = 1/6.   Then this can be tested under frequentist definitions.  How 
many throws yielded :: out of 10,000 trials?  If you're playing craps 
then you adopt a degree of belief that :: will appear 1/6 of the time 
and being a decision theorist you bet accordingly.


Brent

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker




On 11/21/2022 6:15 PM, smitra wrote:

On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote:

On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here 
that it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact 
statement:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.


Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the
theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the
scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic.

Brent


But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So, 
that then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic.


Physics "implements" things operationally.  Probability's operational 
meaning in physics is frequentist.  That this differs from the axiomatic 
foundation of measure theory is no more surprising than physics 
measurements are always rational values while the theories are written 
in real numbers.  Does that make Newtonian mechanics "problematic"?  Is 
this a new revelation that physics is not mathematics?


Brent


Saibal



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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread smitra

On 22-11-2022 02:47, Brent Meeker wrote:

On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that 
it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact 
statement:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.


Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the
theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the
scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic.

Brent


But physics cannot implement a rigorous notion of probability. So, that 
then makes QM in the traditional formulation problematic.


Saibal

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 1:05 PM smitra  wrote:

> On 22-11-2022 02:45, Bruce Kellett wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:12 PM smitra  wrote:
> >
> >> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here
> >> that
> >> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact
> >> statement:
> >>
> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s
> >>
> >> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a
> >> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.
> >
> > No statements in physics are exactly true.
> >
> > Bruce
> >
>
> The problem with probability is actually the other way around. It's
> impossible to rigorously define probability in purely physical terms.
> Therefore the exact formulation of the laws of physics cannot refer to
> probability.
>

They can if probability is taken to be a primitive, not definable in terms
of any physical thing or process. In other words, we use probability in
physics the same way as we use mathematics. Mathematics cannot be
rigorously defined in purely physical terms -- it is defined logically in
its own terms, but it finds application in physics.

Deutsch might just as well argue that we can do physics without
mathematics.

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread smitra

On 22-11-2022 02:45, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:12 PM smitra  wrote:


The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here
that
it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact
statement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a
theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.


No statements in physics are exactly true.

Bruce



The problem with probability is actually the other way around. It's 
impossible to rigorously define probability in purely physical terms. 
Therefore the exact formulation of the laws of physics cannot refer to 
probability.


Saibal


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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:44 PM Brent Meeker  wrote:

> On 11/21/2022 4:38 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
>
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:35 AM Brent Meeker 
> wrote:
>
>>
>> But frequencies are how we test probabilistic theories.
>>
>
> Testing is not a theoretical grounding of the theory.
>
>
> It's not the axiomatic ground of Kolmogorov's theory.  But so what?  We
> tested Euclid's theory of geometry by making measurements which weren't in
> his axioms.  That doesn't mean Euclid's wasn't a good theory of geometry.
> I can see Deutsch crossing off Pythagora's theorem saying, "No matter how
> precise our instruments they only yield rational quantities!"  Physics is
> not mathematics and it's never going to have data to infinitely many
> decimal places.  That frequencies only yield rational number approximations
> to Born rule predictions doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
>

What is a probability? We can't define it as a limiting frequency, since
repeats of a sequence of measurements of a spin are going to give a range
of answers for the frequency of spin-up, and this sequence converges to
some limit only in probability. That is then circular -- probability is
defined in terms of probability.

Perhaps 'probability' is a primitive concept -- not definable in terms of
anything physical. Nevertheless, like language, it is essential for our
understanding of our experience of the world.

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker




On 11/21/2022 5:12 PM, smitra wrote:
The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that 
it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact statement:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.


Who says so?  Physics never makes exact measurements.  Why should the 
theory do something that the physics can't?  Deutsch is like the 
scholastics, he thinks physics is just a branch of mathematical logic.


Brent



Saibal



On 22-11-2022 01:08, Brent Meeker wrote:

He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability
statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other
gamblers".  Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch
of definite assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
but that's the way to bet."
    --- Damon Runyan

"In the Austin airport on the way to this meeting I noticed for sale
the October issue of a magazine called Astronomy, having on the cover
the
headline “Why You Live in Multiple Universes.” Inside I found a
report of
a discussion at a conference at Stanford, at which Martin Rees said
that
he was sufficiently confident about the multiverse to bet his dog’s
life on
it, while Andrei Linde said he would bet his own life. As for me, I
have
just enough confidence about the multiverse to bet the lives of both
Andrei
Linde and Martin Rees’s dog."
    --- Steven Weinberg

Brent

On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:


On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:


Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as
explained
here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't,
despite his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For
example, in quantum mechanics, he has not explained why, if one
measures the z-spin of a spin-half particle prepared in an
eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one result -- either z-spin-up
or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated probability, one should be
able to explain which result one gets, and why. It is no solution to
say that with many-worlds, that both results are obtained by
disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just one
copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual
separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see
only z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a
viable concept of probability and the Born rule.

Bruce --
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 12:12 PM smitra  wrote:

> The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that
> it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact statement:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s
>
> That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a
> theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.
>

No statements in physics are exactly true.

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/21/2022 4:38 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:35 AM Brent Meeker  
wrote:


On 11/21/2022 4:33 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:08 AM Brent Meeker
 wrote:

He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support
probability statements.  He goes off on a tangent by
referring to "other gamblers".  Nothing in physics is
certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch of definite assertions and
claims they alone are the real physics.


His critique of frequentism is just a recap of arguments that are
well known -- you cannot ground probability theory in
frequentism, or the idea that probabilities are nothing more than
ratios of long-run frequencies. Long-run frequencies might
approximate the probabilities, but they cannot be used to ground
probability theory -- for well known reasons. I agree that he
goes off on a number of irrelevant tangents, and he is wrong to
suppose that frequentism is a main-stream theory of
probability (at least, these days).


But frequencies are how we test probabilistic theories.


Testing is not a theoretical grounding of the theory.


It's not the axiomatic ground of Kolmogorov's theory.  But so what? We 
tested Euclid's theory of geometry by making measurements which weren't 
in his axioms.  That doesn't mean Euclid's wasn't a good theory of 
geometry.  I can see Deutsch crossing off Pythagora's theorem saying, 
"No matter how precise our instruments they only yield rational 
quantities!"  Physics is not mathematics and it's never going to have 
data to infinitely many decimal places.  That frequencies only yield 
rational number approximations to Born rule predictions doesn't seem 
like a big deal to me.


Brent



Bruce
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread smitra
The problem lies with the notion of probability, he explains here that 
it cannot refer to anything in the physics world as an exact statement:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

That's then a problem for a fundamental theory of physics as such a 
theory must refer to statements about nature that are exactly true.


Saibal



On 22-11-2022 01:08, Brent Meeker wrote:

He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability
statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other
gamblers".  Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch
of definite assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
but that's the way to bet."
--- Damon Runyan

"In the Austin airport on the way to this meeting I noticed for sale
the October issue of a magazine called Astronomy, having on the cover
the
headline “Why You Live in Multiple Universes.” Inside I found a
report of
a discussion at a conference at Stanford, at which Martin Rees said
that
he was sufficiently confident about the multiverse to bet his dog’s
life on
it, while Andrei Linde said he would bet his own life. As for me, I
have
just enough confidence about the multiverse to bet the lives of both
Andrei
Linde and Martin Rees’s dog."
--- Steven Weinberg

Brent

On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:


On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:


Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as
explained
here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't,
despite his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For
example, in quantum mechanics, he has not explained why, if one
measures the z-spin of a spin-half particle prepared in an
eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one result -- either z-spin-up
or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated probability, one should be
able to explain which result one gets, and why. It is no solution to
say that with many-worlds, that both results are obtained by
disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just one
copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual
separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see
only z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a
viable concept of probability and the Born rule.

Bruce --
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread smitra

On 21-11-2022 01:28, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:


Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained
here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't,
despite his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For
example, in quantum mechanics, he has not explained why, if one
measures the z-spin of a spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate
of x-spin, one gets only one result -- either z-spin-up or
z-spin-down. If one has eliminated probability, one should be able to
explain which result one gets, and why. It is no solution to say that
with many-worlds, that both results are obtained by disjoint copies of
the experimenter. The experimenter is just one copy, and one would
have to explain the result for each individual separately. Many worlds
does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and not
z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable concept of
probability and the Born rule.

Bruce


He has argued that fundamental physics cannot be based on probability, 
it can at best play a role in an effective description of the physical 
world. This excerpt is the most to the point:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc=1036s

He then goes on to argue that there is no need to refer to probabilities 
in QM using a decision theoretic argument that does not refer to any 
notion of a probability.


Saibal



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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:35 AM Brent Meeker  wrote:

> On 11/21/2022 4:33 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
>
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:08 AM Brent Meeker 
> wrote:
>
>> He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability
>> statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other gamblers".
>> Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch of definite
>> assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.
>>
>
> His critique of frequentism is just a recap of arguments that are well
> known -- you cannot ground probability theory in frequentism, or the idea
> that probabilities are nothing more than ratios of long-run frequencies.
> Long-run frequencies might approximate the probabilities, but they cannot
> be used to ground probability theory -- for well known reasons. I agree
> that he goes off on a number of irrelevant tangents, and he is wrong to
> suppose that frequentism is a main-stream theory of probability (at least,
> these days).
>
>
> But frequencies are how we test probabilistic theories.
>

Testing is not a theoretical grounding of the theory.

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/21/2022 4:33 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:08 AM Brent Meeker  
wrote:


He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support
probability statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to
"other gamblers".  Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch
takes a bunch of definite assertions and claims they alone are the
real physics.


His critique of frequentism is just a recap of arguments that are well 
known -- you cannot ground probability theory in frequentism, or the 
idea that probabilities are nothing more than ratios of long-run 
frequencies. Long-run frequencies might approximate the probabilities, 
but they cannot be used to ground probability theory -- for well known 
reasons. I agree that he goes off on a number of irrelevant tangents, 
and he is wrong to suppose that frequentism is a main-stream theory of 
probability (at least, these days).


But frequencies are how we test probabilistic theories.

Brent



Bruce

On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:

Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as
explained
here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't,
despite his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For
example, in quantum mechanics, he has not explained why, if one
measures the z-spin of a spin-half particle prepared in an
eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one result -- either
z-spin-up or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated probability, one
should be able to explain which result one gets, and why. It is
no solution to say that with many-worlds, that both results are
obtained by disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter
is just one copy, and one would have to explain the result for
each individual separately. Many worlds does not explain why I,
for example, see only z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make
sense of that, we need a viable concept of probability and the
Born rule.

Bruce


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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:08 AM Brent Meeker  wrote:

> He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability
> statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other gamblers".
> Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch of definite
> assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.
>

His critique of frequentism is just a recap of arguments that are well
known -- you cannot ground probability theory in frequentism, or the idea
that probabilities are nothing more than ratios of long-run frequencies.
Long-run frequencies might approximate the probabilities, but they cannot
be used to ground probability theory -- for well known reasons. I agree
that he goes off on a number of irrelevant tangents, and he is wrong to
suppose that frequentism is a main-stream theory of probability (at least,
these days).

Bruce

On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:
>
>> Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained
>> here:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc
>
>
> I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't, despite
> his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For example, in quantum
> mechanics, he has not explained why, if one measures the z-spin of a
> spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one
> result -- either z-spin-up or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated
> probability, one should be able to explain which result one gets, and why.
> It is no solution to say that with many-worlds, that both results are
> obtained by disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just
> one copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual
> separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only
> z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable
> concept of probability and the Born rule.
>
> Bruce
>
>

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker
He's wrong that frequentism does not empirically support probability 
statements.  He goes off on a tangent by referring to "other gamblers".  
Nothing in physics is certain, yet Deutsch takes a bunch of definite 
assertions and claims they alone are the real physics.


"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but 
that's the way to bet."

    --- Damon Runyan

"In the Austin airport on the way to this meeting I noticed for sale
the October issue of a magazine called Astronomy, having on the cover the
headline “Why You Live in Multiple Universes.” Inside I found a report of
a discussion at a conference at Stanford, at which Martin Rees said that
he was sufficiently confident about the multiverse to bet his dog’s life on
it, while Andrei Linde said he would bet his own life. As for me, I have
just enough confidence about the multiverse to bet the lives of both Andrei
Linde and Martin Rees’s dog."
    --- Steven Weinberg

Brent


On 11/20/2022 4:28 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:

On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:

Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained
here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't, 
despite his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For 
example, in quantum mechanics, he has not explained why, if one 
measures the z-spin of a spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate 
of x-spin, one gets only one result -- either z-spin-up or 
z-spin-down. If one has eliminated probability, one should be able to 
explain which result one gets, and why. It is no solution to say that 
with many-worlds, that both results are obtained by disjoint copies of 
the experimenter. The experimenter is just one copy, and one would 
have to explain the result for each individual separately. Many worlds 
does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and not 
z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable concept of 
probability and the Born rule.


Bruce
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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Brent Meeker



On 11/21/2022 3:33 AM, John Clark wrote:
On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 7:29 PM Bruce Kellett  
wrote:


/> The experimenter is just one copy/


And that pinpoints the error in your logic right there.

/> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only
z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a
viable concept of probability and the Born rule./


Gleason's theorem proved mathematically that if you want this thing 
called "probability" to have the property that it is always positive 
and never negative, and the property that if you add up all the 
"probabilities" they always add up to exactly 100% , then the Born 
Rule can be derived from quantum mechanics provided you make the 
assumption of non-reality (sometimes called Quantum contextuality), 
that is to say if you assume that an unmeasured quality does NOT have 
one and only one value. Many Worlds does make that assumption, or 
rather it makes the assumption that Schrodinger's equation means what 
it says, and once you do that you have no choice but to accept 
non-reality. You can still save reality but to do so you must make 
additional assumptions (such as the assumption that Schrodinger's 
equation does NOT mean what it says), that's why some call Many Worlds 
bare bones, no nonsense quantum mechanics, it has no silly bells and 
whistles cluttering things up. And that's the sort of thing William of 
Ockham would approve of.


It has an infinite number of other worlds, most differing from this 
world only in unobservable ways.  In comparison, taking the Born rule to 
mean what it says seems like modest addition to the theory.


Brent



I admit that does not prove Many Worlds is correct but at least it 
passes its first test, and it proves that conventional everyday 
assumptions about the nature of reality must be dead wrong; you're 
never going to find a quantum interpretation that feels obvious and 
intuitively true and is also consistent with experimental 
observations. So if Many Worlds is incorrect then something even 
stranger must be true.


/> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only
z-spin-up and not z-spin-down./


And Bruce Kellett does not explain what exactly the personal pronoun 
"I" means in the context of Many Worlds. In Many Worlds for every 
state that the laws of physics allows a particle to be in there is a 
Bruce Kellett observing that state; so of course Mr. I will observe 
one and only one state.


John K Clark    See what's on my new list at Extropolis 


trb



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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread John Clark
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 6:56 AM Bruce Kellett  wrote:

*> And Many worlds assumes a probabilistic interpretation, contradicting
> the argument that Deutsch is making.*
>

Don't be silly, David Deutsch is a professional physicist and knows
perfectly well, better than you or I do I'll bet, that Quantum Mechanics
can only make probabilistic productions.

*> You can't get separate worlds in which different copies of the observer
> see different outcomes without assuming the Born rule.*
>

As I've said before, nobody ever has to assume the Born Rule because
everybody already knows with certainty that it's true, they know it from
experimentation. And experimentation is the boss not theory, it always has
the last word.

*> So that small amplitudes correspond to low probabilities.*
>

Yes, a small amplitude means there are fewer copies of Bruce Kellett similar
enough to "you" to be called Bruce Kellett that observe the electron going
up than number of Bruce Kelletts that observe the electron going down. So
if a bet was made about what Bruce Kellett will probably see the smart
money would bet on the electron going down.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

kss

trb



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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 10:34 PM John Clark  wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 7:29 PM Bruce Kellett 
> wrote:
>
> *> The experimenter is just one copy*
>
>
> And that pinpoints the error in your logic right there.
>
> *> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and
>> not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable concept of
>> probability and the Born rule.*
>
>
> Gleason's theorem proved mathematically that if you want this thing called
> "probability" to have the property that it is always positive and never
> negative, and the property that if you add up all the "probabilities" they
> always add up to exactly 100% , then the Born Rule can be derived from
> quantum mechanics provided you make the assumption of non-reality
> (sometimes called Quantum contextuality), that is to say if you assume that
> an unmeasured quality does NOT have one and only one value. Many Worlds
> does make that assumption, or rather it makes the assumption that
> Schrodinger's equation means what it says, and once you do that you have no
> choice but to accept non-reality. You can still save reality but to do so
> you must make additional assumptions (such as the assumption that
> Schrodinger's equation does NOT mean what it says), that's why some call
> Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum mechanics, it has no silly
> bells and whistles cluttering things up. And that's the sort of thing
> William of Ockham would approve of.
>
> I admit that does not prove Many Worlds is correct but at least it passes
> its first test, and it proves that conventional everyday assumptions about
> the nature of reality must be dead wrong; you're never going to find a
> quantum interpretation that feels obvious and intuitively true and is also
> consistent with experimental observations. So if Many Worlds is incorrect
> then something even stranger must be true.
>
> *> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and
>> not z-spin-down.*
>
>
> And Bruce Kellett does not explain what exactly the personal pronoun "I"
> means in the context of Many Worlds. In Many Worlds for every state that
> the laws of physics allows a particle to be in there is a Bruce Kellett
> observing that state; so of course Mr. I will observe one and only one
> state.
>


And Many worlds assumes a probabilistic interpretation, contradicting the
argument that Deutsch is making. You can't get separate worlds in which
different copies of the observer see different outcomes without assuming
the Born rule. So that small amplitudes correspond to low probabilities.
Without this assumption, the superposition is never resolved into separate
components (worlds).

Bruce

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread John Clark
On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 7:29 PM Bruce Kellett  wrote:

*> The experimenter is just one copy*


And that pinpoints the error in your logic right there.

*> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and
> not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable concept of
> probability and the Born rule.*


Gleason's theorem proved mathematically that if you want this thing called
"probability" to have the property that it is always positive and never
negative, and the property that if you add up all the "probabilities" they
always add up to exactly 100% , then the Born Rule can be derived from
quantum mechanics provided you make the assumption of non-reality
(sometimes called Quantum contextuality), that is to say if you assume that
an unmeasured quality does NOT have one and only one value. Many Worlds
does make that assumption, or rather it makes the assumption that
Schrodinger's equation means what it says, and once you do that you have no
choice but to accept non-reality. You can still save reality but to do so
you must make additional assumptions (such as the assumption that
Schrodinger's equation does NOT mean what it says), that's why some call
Many Worlds bare bones, no nonsense quantum mechanics, it has no silly
bells and whistles cluttering things up. And that's the sort of thing
William of Ockham would approve of.

I admit that does not prove Many Worlds is correct but at least it passes
its first test, and it proves that conventional everyday assumptions about
the nature of reality must be dead wrong; you're never going to find a
quantum interpretation that feels obvious and intuitively true and is also
consistent with experimental observations. So if Many Worlds is incorrect
then something even stranger must be true.

*> Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only z-spin-up and
> not z-spin-down.*


And Bruce Kellett does not explain what exactly the personal pronoun "I"
means in the context of Many Worlds. In Many Worlds for every state that
the laws of physics allows a particle to be in there is a Bruce Kellett
observing that state; so of course Mr. I will observe one and only one
state.

John K ClarkSee what's on my new list at  Extropolis

trb

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-21 Thread Lawrence Crowell
On Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 6:29:00 PM UTC-6 Bruce wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:
>
>> Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained 
>> here:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc
>
>
> I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't, despite 
> his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For example, in quantum 
> mechanics, he has not explained why, if one measures the z-spin of a 
> spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one 
> result -- either z-spin-up or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated 
> probability, one should be able to explain which result one gets, and why. 
> It is no solution to say that with many-worlds, that both results are 
> obtained by disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just 
> one copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual 
> separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only 
> z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable 
> concept of probability and the Born rule.
>
> Bruce
>

As I see it quantum mechanics has features of being a type of Bayesian 
update system with mutual information. A single system can give a string of 
outputs, say by running an electron through a sequence of Stern-Gerlach 
experiments, which will give a statistical distribution of outcomes based 
on the orientation of the different SG apparatuses. However, to understand 
the statistical properties one must perform this experiment multiple times, 
for to assume any string of outcomes with a single electron gives the total 
statistical distribution is to assume the ergodic principle. Bayesian 
statistics is not entirely consistent with the ergodic principle. I see 
this as holding regardless of what interpretation of quantum mechanics one 
holds to. With science in general experiments are performed on multiple 
systems and with repeated trials, whether the experiments test the 
effectiveness of a medication or are looking for the Higgs particle. 
Science addresses nature not in some existential level according to what 
always "is" with a system, but rather as a set of outcomes of various 
trials. 

The nature of quantum wave function is not explicitly knowable. Bohr said 
the wave function is just a predictive device meant to predict probability 
outcomes, and it has no effectiveness at telling us how an outcome obtains. 
This is the epistemic perspective. Everettian MWI is an ontological 
interpretation, but again it gives us no information for predicting any 
particular outcome. This appears in what I have seen so far of this what 
Deutsch is trying to argue. In effect this is an appeal to some type of 
local hidden variable. Since neither epistemic or ontic interpretations 
tell us anything about how an outcome applies, the existential nature of 
the wave function is not decidable.

A quantum interpretation is not something that is proven by quantum 
mechanics. It can only be consistent with quantum mechanics, say in that it 
does not contradict quantum mechanical results. The Bohm QM interpretation 
originally proposed a local hidden variable, but since this contradicts QM 
and so the Bohmians accepted a non-local hidden variable or "beable," 
within a rather clumsy system. Deutsch is attempting to localize a hidden 
variable IMO.

This interestingly points to issues with quantum gravitation. One of the 
things that is strange is that in cosmology a lot of what we think of as 
hard facts about physics do not apply. One of these is conservation of 
energy. There are various types of solutions to the Einstein field 
equation. These are from the close field to far field, Petrov type D 
solutions corresponding to black holes, type II and III solutions that 
correspond to intermediate gravity field, and type N solutions that are far 
field solutions and gravitational waves or radiation. These have dynamics 
on a contact manifold determined by Nöther’s theorem and Killing vectors. 
These also have a distribution of occurrences in the world. The universe 
does not, and further it has only one outcome. Quantum cosmology is not 
something that fits within a standard scientific paradigm.

All of these ideas of multiverse, or black hole vacuum generation of 
cosmologies and so forth are so red-shifted away that we may never be able 
to observe any consequence of them. This is particularly the case with 
inflation. In effect these sorts of “pre-cosmic” theories may be sort of 
quantum gravitational hidden variables that are completely unobservable.

I think that Deutsch is proposing something that is a type of hidden 
variable that will contradict QM on some level. Deutsch has proposed these 
things before, where at one time he said there splitting of the worlds was 
determined by some scalar field that an experimenter could observe and 
predict the outcome.


LC

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Re: Physics Without Probability

2022-11-20 Thread Bruce Kellett
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 2:52 AM smitra  wrote:

> Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained
> here:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc


I'm afraid Deutsch is a bit too glib in this lecture. He hasn't, despite
his best efforts, removed probability from physics. For example, in quantum
mechanics, he has not explained why, if one measures the z-spin of a
spin-half particle prepared in an eigenstate of x-spin, one gets only one
result -- either z-spin-up or z-spin-down. If one has eliminated
probability, one should be able to explain which result one gets, and why.
It is no solution to say that with many-worlds, that both results are
obtained by disjoint copies of the experimenter. The experimenter is just
one copy, and one would have to explain the result for each individual
separately. Many worlds does not explain why I, for example, see only
z-spin-up and not z-spin-down. To make sense of that, we need a viable
concept of probability and the Born rule.

Bruce

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Physics Without Probability

2022-11-20 Thread smitra
Probability cannot be a fundamental concept in physics as explained 
here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzSE4Hoxbc

Saibal

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