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_heimdall • today at 11:42 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Unpopular opinion I think, but I still believe the physics world was wrong to chase the Copenhagen interpretation.

The math does indeed work, and many experiments and practical uses seem to show that there is something to quantum broadly. But to throw determinism out the window and believe that quantum is fundamentally probabilistic, and that one can never really run scientific experiments because observing state collapses superposition, has always seemed asinine to me.

I could be completely wrong, but it's always seemed obvious to me that the need for probabilities in quantum is a clear indicator that something is missing in the theory. I'm never surprised when a person can't understand quantum as its described today.


Replies

lefra • today at 12:26 PM

It's completely counterintuitive, but that's how it works experimentally. For example:

Measure the spin of electrons in direction X (that's done with a weirdly shaped magnet). You'll get either +1 or -1 in a conveniently chosen unit system. That's already weird, you'll never measure +0.5 for example. Keep only the +1 electrons. You can measure them again and again, you'll always get +1 in the X direction.

Now measure those electrons in the Y direction, you'll also get either +1 or -1.

But now, if you measure in the X direction again, you'll get +1 or -1 with 50% probability; although before measuring in the Y direction, these electrons always had spin +1 in the X direction.

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karussell • today at 11:54 AM

It has been shown that you can keep determinism (Bohm etc), but what follows is not necessary something you'll find more intuitive or cleaner or more logical.

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