It’s true that there are mathematical structures within the pilot wave (including in those parts of it that do not carry particles) that correspond to observers. However, since the pilot wave isn’t a real thing, those observers don’t actually exist. The only observers that exist are the ones made out of particles.
This is the part I don’t get. How can the pilot wave “not be a real thing” if it’s being computed? Is there some sense in which a thing can be real separate from its being computed?
When you talk about the pilot wave “being computed”, you are assuming a conception of laws of nature that contemporary advocates of Bohmianism would most likely reject. In what sense do you think the pilot wave is being computed? If you want to know more about how Bohmians conceive of the status of the laws of QM, read the first paper I linked in this comment, or at least its conclusion. Basically, you’re supposed to think of Schrodinger’s equation as merely an efficient strategy for compressing information about particle interaction.
This is the part I don’t get. How can the pilot wave “not be a real thing” if it’s being computed? Is there some sense in which a thing can be real separate from its being computed?
When you talk about the pilot wave “being computed”, you are assuming a conception of laws of nature that contemporary advocates of Bohmianism would most likely reject. In what sense do you think the pilot wave is being computed? If you want to know more about how Bohmians conceive of the status of the laws of QM, read the first paper I linked in this comment, or at least its conclusion. Basically, you’re supposed to think of Schrodinger’s equation as merely an efficient strategy for compressing information about particle interaction.
The same way that World of Warcraft isn’t real. Computations are in the map not in the territory.
And yet, a WoW account has persistent state and internal dynamics. It seems real to me. It just isn’t the same thing as what it represents.