On 10/10/2019 8:02 AM, Alan Grayson wrote:
On Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 4:21:50 PM UTC-6, Brent wrote: On 10/9/2019 3:52 AM, Alan Grayson wrote:On Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 12:28:38 AM UTC-6, Brent wrote: On 10/8/2019 9:20 PM, Alan Grayson wrote: > I've argued this before, but it's worth stating again. It's a > misintepretation of superposition to claim that a system described by > it, is in all the component states simultaneously. As is easily seen > in ordinary vector space, an arbitrary vector has an uncountable > number of different representations. Thus, to claim it is in some > specific set of component states simultaneously, makes no sense. Thus > evaporates a key "mystery" of quantum theory, inclusive of S's cat and > Everett's many worlds. AG No. It changes the problem to the question of why there are preferred bases. Brent Who chose Alive and Dead, or Awake and Sleeping for the S. cat? Wasn't it the observer?Could the observer have chosen |alive>+|dead> and |alive>-|dead> as a basis? Brent*That's a great question and the answer is No, because, as you would say, the pair (|Alive>, |Dead>), forms a "preferred" basis. We can only measure Alive or Dead. However, the other pair you have above is a perfectly valid state of the S cat system, a vector in the Hilbert Space of the system, and presumably there is an uncountable set of other valid states in Hilbert Space. This means that the interpretation of a superposition of the first pair is just as valid as the interpretation of any other pair; namely, that the system is in _both components simultanously_. But this is obvious nonsense given the plethora of valid bases, so the interpretation fails. THIS is my point. Am I mistaken? AG*
The way I read what you posted above is that it would "make no sense" to say a ship on a heading of 345deg is simultaneously moving on a 270deg and 90deg heading. I think that does make sense. The interesting question is could it be moving on some other heading? The answer might be no, it's in the Panama Canal. In other words there may be something else in physics that determines perferred basis, even thought he bare Schrodinger equation doesn't seem to.
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