Doug Renselle (renselle@on-net.net)
Sun, 14 Dec 1997 05:32:40 +0100
TLS,
The following quotes, which extend Pirsig's SODV, are from -
Jim Baggott - "The Meaning of Quantum Theory," (1992) pp. 84-86:
(5"x8" paperback)
"The Copenhagen interpretation requires that we consider very carefully
the methods by which we acquire knowledge of the physical world. It
shifts the focus of scientific activity from the objects of our studies
to the relationships between those objects and the instruments we use to
reveal their behaviour: the instrument takes centre-stage, alongside
the object, and the distinction between them is blurred.
"According to this interpretation, it is not meaningful to regard a
quantum particle as having any intrinsic properties independent of some
measuring instrument...each property becomes 'real' only when the
electron interacts with an instrument specifically designed to reveal
it..."
"...Bohr insisted that we can say nothing at all about a quantum
particle without making very clear reference to the nature of the
instrument which we use to make measurements on it..."
"Bohr argued that although the wave picture and the particle picture are
mutually exclusive, they are not contradictory, but complementary. For
Bohr, complementarity lay at the heart of the strange nature of the
quantum world...The mathematical formalism of quantum theory becomes an
attempt to repackage complementary wave and particle descriptions in a
single, all-encompassing theory. This does not imply that the theory is
wrong or somehow incomplete. On the contrary, it is the best we can do
and goes as far as we can go."
"Because of the emphasis placed on the importance of the observer or
observing instrument, many physicists and philosophers have accused the
Copenhagen interpretation of being subjective. Clearly, the subject
(the observer) appears to exercise remarkable powers over reality, with
the freedom to choose what kind of reality is to be probed..."
"This charge of subjectivism is unfair. In many of his most oft-quoted
statements, Bohr insisted that he was searching for objectivity. But
his was the weaker objectivity that we have in this book associated with
positivism rather than the strong objectivity of the realist."
p. 124
"...Definiteness in one direction must lead to complete indefiniteness
in all other directions (complementarity)."
p. 150
"...After all, it was Bohr's insistence on the complementary nature of
wave and particle properties that became one of the foundation stones of
the Copenhagen interpretation. The Aspect experiments demonstrate in a
round-about way that this complementarity creates a direct conflict
between quantum theory and local reality..."
(TLS, note that 'local reality' is objective and that to which the SOM
adheres.)
Mtty,
Doug Renselle.
-- " But quantum theory has destroyed the idea that only properties located in external physical objects have reality."Robert M. Pirsig, page 14 in his paper "Subjects, Objects, Data and Values," presented at the Einstein Meets Magritte conference, Fall 1995.
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