We've seen before on this blog that we often take probability theory to be the core of rational belief. What we haven't seen before is that our beliefs tend to violate probability theory not just in random ways, which is what you would expect if you thought we were making random mistakes, but systematically, in… Continue reading Paper Review: The Rational Status of Quantum Cognition
Tag: quantum mechanics
Paper Review: Unified dynamics for microscopic and macroscopic systems
In the wake of the quantum measurement problem there is a constellation of competing theories of quantum mechanics. Any adequate solution to the measurement problem must make predictions that agree with the observed quantum statistics. In particular, the theory must explain why small particles exhibit counter-intuitive behaviour and why this seems to go away at… Continue reading Paper Review: Unified dynamics for microscopic and macroscopic systems
Paper Review: Subject and Object
One way to think about the quantum measurement is to think about the conflict between subjective and objective probability. We looked at some of Everett's earlier thoughts along these lines last week. As I mentioned in that post, later on in one version of his thesis he provided a much cleaner account of the measurement… Continue reading Paper Review: Subject and Object
Paper Review: Objective versus Subjective Probability
Hugh Everett III proposed his many worlds (or as he preferred to call it, relative state) formulation of quantum mechanics back in the mid 50s in order to solve the quantum measurement problem. Although it took a while for the theory to gain traction, it (or some form of it) is one of the more… Continue reading Paper Review: Objective versus Subjective Probability
Paper Review: The measurement theory of Everett and de Broglie’s pilot wave
I've written before on this blog about quantum mechanics. We've looked at a questionable interpretation of a recent experiment, the way in which quantum mechanics is radically nonlocal, and certain theoretical constructs needed for the thought experiments used in physics. One of the main reasons why quantum physics fascinates people is because the phenomenon themselves… Continue reading Paper Review: The measurement theory of Everett and de Broglie’s pilot wave
Paper Review: Bell’s Theorem: The Price of Locality
Quantum phenomena--and the theories built to account for them--can be strange. One of the most fundamental and (to some), spooky, things about quantum mechanics is action at a distance. What exactly is action at a distance in quantum mechanics, and what are its implications? This is one of the central questions of Tim Maudlin's book… Continue reading Paper Review: Bell’s Theorem: The Price of Locality
Paper Review: Experimental Rejection of Observer-independence in the Quantum World
The MIT Technology Review recently published an article entitled "A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality". This sounds rather spicy: if this were true, and there were no objective reality, what would that mean? Would the postmodernists be right? Would it all be purely subjective? How about claims like "there is… Continue reading Paper Review: Experimental Rejection of Observer-independence in the Quantum World
Paper Review: Free Variables and Local Causality
When can we treat certain experimental parameters as free variables? Consider trying to figure out whether or not a certain drug is efficacious. We design an experiment that proceeds as follow: Break a collection of experimental subjects up into two groups randomly.To one of the groups give the drug, and to the other give a… Continue reading Paper Review: Free Variables and Local Causality
The Crow's Nest 