On Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 12:17:08 PM UTC-6, agrays...@gmail.com wrote: > > > > On Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 6:00:50 PM UTC, Philip Thrift wrote: >> >> >> >> On Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 8:43:35 AM UTC-6, agrays...@gmail.com >> wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> On Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 9:27:46 AM UTC, Philip Thrift wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Monday, November 26, 2018 at 3:43:14 PM UTC-6, agrays...@gmail.com >>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> *I checked the postulates in Feynman's Sums Over Histories (in link >>>>> provided by Phil) and I see nothing related to waves, as expected, and >>>>> thus >>>>> nothing about collapse of anything. I would suppose the same applies to >>>>> Heisenberg's Matrix Mechanics; no waves, no collapse. I suppose you could >>>>> say they just produce correct probabilities, and imply nothing about >>>>> relative states other than their probabilities (which wave mechanics >>>>> does), >>>>> but certainly nothing about consciousness. To summarize: you're right >>>>> that >>>>> they are "no collapse" theories, but IMO they say nothing about >>>>> consciousness. AG* >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> In terms of the path-integral (PI) interpretation [ interesting >>>> lecture: >>>> https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/videos/path-integral-interpretation-quantum-mechanics >>>> >>>> ], there is in effect no waves or wave function, just paths, or histories, >>>> in the sum-over-histories (SOH) terminology. >>>> >>>> There is still "decoherence" in the SOH (a single history is ultimately >>>> "realized"), but it could be called "selection": a single history is >>>> selected from the total ensemble of multiple and interfering histories. >>>> E.g. a single point on a screen is "hit" by a photon in the double-slit >>>> experiment. >>>> >>> >>> *Does "selection" add any insight to the measurement problem; that is, >>> why do we get what we get? And if not, what is its value? TIA, AG * >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >> If you look at it as a "selection of the fittest" (one history surviving >> from an ensemble of histories), then it's like a form of quantum Darwinism. >> The quantum substrate is a cruel world where all histories (but one) die. >> > > That's not an explanation; rather, a vacuous statement of the result. AG > >> >> But that is a criticism of Darwinism (*natural selection*) in general.
*Quantum Darwinism* is a theory claiming to explain the emergence of the classical world <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_physics>from the quantum world <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics> as due to *a process of **Darwinian <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin> natural selection <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection>*; where the many possible quantum states <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_states> are selected against in favor of a stable pointer state <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_state>. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Darwinism ] - pt -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
