On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 12:24:02PM +1300, LizR wrote: > Can you explain the problem a bit more for us dummies? ISTM - probably this > just shows I don't understand the problem, but I may as well state my, > ahem, position - that all measurements made using a physical apparatus are > going to resolve into the position of something, e.g. the position of a > pointer or pixels on a display. Is that anything to do with the "position > basis" and if so why is that a problem? >
Well, I am one of the "dummies", so I was hoping Bruce might tell us more. ISTM, that if you place the "epistemic cut" between the quantum and classical world at anywhere other than the observer (eg at some so-called measuring device), then you have a problem of where to place that epistemic cut. If, on the other hand, the epistemic cut lies within the observer erself, then no position basis is involved at all, unless the observer is entirely interested in the positions of something (and not, say, momentum). And is it important? I'm not sure that it is - if no superposition over position bases was ever seen, then phenomena such as quantum tunneling couldn't exist. But it does. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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.
