Re: virus: Re: Heisenberg

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:32:22 -0600 (CST)


On Wed, 15 Jan 1997, Alexander Williams wrote:

> zaimoni@ksu.edu wrote:
> > This reminds me of a calculation Von Neumann attempted: "WHEN does a wave
> > function collapse occur?" His result: it was when the event reached the
> > observer, not when the event supposedly occured.
>
> I don't see this being the case at all; you can only /tell/ the wave has
> collapsed when you, as an observer, detect it, but there's little basis
> in thinking you have some mystical property that makes waves collapse
> just from your knowing their outcome.

Agreed--Many-worlds is relatively recent in popularity. This calculation
was back in the 1950's, and may have explicity assumed boosting axioms
equivalent to the Copenhagen interpretation.

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