On 12/28/2013 5:32 PM, Edgar L. Owen wrote:
Brent,
Sure, the alignment is the actual source of all randomness, because what is happening is
independent spaces are being aligned by common events, and there is no deterministic way
to align separate independent spaces (in the absence of a common background reference
space which does not exist), thus nature is forced to act probabilistically. This
phenomena is the source of all randomness.
Ok, so your theory is inherently random. It doesn't have some hidden determinism. And
it's not just the uncertainty of our predictions. It's really random, so some things
happen and some don't. I have no problem with the possibility of fundamental randomness -
but you'll find others on this list (like Bruno) that consider it as preposterous as you
consider many-worlds. :-)
But I've pointed out that there is a somewhat arbitrary step in decoherence, the tracing
over the environmental variables. This has to be done in a certain basis in order to get
a diagonal density matrix for the system+instrument. Finding or justifying this basis is
usually referred to as "the basis problem". It is hoped that the form of the interaction
Hamiltonian between the system+instrument and the environment will define the right basis,
e.g. if the interaction potential is a function of position then a coordinate position
basis will be the one that diagonalizes the density matrix. But this hasn't really been
worked out yet, and your theory would seem to have more difficulties in doing this because
you don't want to assume spacial coordinates, but rather derive them.
Incidentally, if you haven't read it already, I highly recommend the review article by
Maximilian Schlosshauer, arXiv:quant-ph/0312059v4, on decoherence theory.
There's also an interesting report of the opinions of physicists about interpretations of
QM in 2011 comparing them to Max Tegmark's poll in 1997. arXiv:quant-ph/1301.1069v1
Brent
"Pluralitas non sunt ponenda sine necessitate"
--- William of Ockham
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