On 12/28/2013 4:45 PM, Jason Resch wrote:



On Sat, Dec 28, 2013 at 7:12 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net <mailto:meeke...@verizon.net>> wrote:

    On 12/27/2013 10:31 PM, Jason Resch wrote:

        To that I would add the purely epistemic "non-intepretation" of Peres 
and Fuchs.

    "No interpretation needed" -- I can interpret this in two ways, one way is 
to just
    take the math and equations literally (this leads to Everett), the other is 
"shut
    up and calculate", which leads no where really.



            2. Determined by which observer? The cat is always either dead or 
alive.
            It's just a matter of someone making a measurement to find out.


        So are you saying that before the measurement the cat is neither alive 
nor
        dead, both alive and dead, or definitely alive or definitely dead?  If 
you,
        (and I think you are), saying that the cat is always definitely alive or
        definitely dead, then about about the radioactive atom? Is it ever in a 
state
        of being decayed and not decayed? If you say no, it sounds like you are
        denying the reality of the superposition, which some interpretations 
do, but
        then this leads to difficulties explaining how quantum computers work 
(which
        require the superposition to exist).

        Superposition is just a question of basis.  An eigenstate in one basis 
is a
        superposition in another.


    Can you provide a concrete example where some system can simultaneously be
    considered to be both in a superposition and not?  Is this like the 
superposition
    having collapsed for Wigner's friend while remaining for Wigner before he 
enters
    the room?


    ?? Every pure state can be written as a superposition of a complete set of 
basis
    states - that's just Hilbert space math.


So then when is the system not in a superposition?

When it's an incoherent mixture of pure states.

Brent

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