On the plus side, this "only correlations" idea reminds me of the idea that fundamental particles don't actually exist but are really only the binding energy holding them together...
:-) On 23 April 2014 20:48, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > Mermin doesn't start too promisingly... > > My complete answer to the late 19th century question “what is > electrodynamics trying to tell us” would simply be this: > > *Fields in empty space have physical reality; the medium that supports > them does not. * > > Having thus removed the mystery from electrodynamics, let me immediately > do the same for quantum mechanics: > > *Correlations have physical reality; that which they correlate does not. * > > In my opinion this isn't "doing the same thing". "Doing the same thing" > would involve electrodynamics telling us that space doesn't exist. The > aether turned out to be superfluous, but fields still have space to > propagate in. Having correlations between non-existent things is a whole > bigger step into the abstract. Still, onwards... > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
