I am starting to get confused by RQM, I really did not get the impression that this is what was claimed. But suppose it is.
To stick with the analogy of relativity, great efforts have been made there to ensure that all important physical formulas are Lorentz-invariant, i.e. do not depend on these artificial coordinate system. In an important sense the system does not depend on your coordinates, although for actual calculations (on a computer or something) such coordinates are needed. So while (General) Relativity indeed satisfies the last line you gave, it also explains exactly how (un)necessary such coordinate systems are, and explains exactly what can be expected to be shown without choosing a coordinate system.
Back to RQM. Here this important explanation of which observables are still independent of the observer(/initial frame) and which formulas are universal are painfully absent. It seems that RQM as stated above is more of an anti-prediction - we accept that each observer can accurately describe his experimental outcomes using QM, and different observers agree with eachother because they are looking at the same territory, hence they should get matching maps, and finally we reject the idea that these observer-dependent representations can be combined to one global representation.
Again I stuggle to combine this method of thought with the fact that humans themselves are made of atoms. If we assume that wavefunctions are only very useful tools for predicting the outcomes of experiments, but the actual territory is not made of something that would be accurately represented by a wavefunction, I run into two immediate problems:
1) In order to make this belief pay rent I would like to know what sort of thing an accurate description of the universe would look like, according to RQM. In other words, where should we begin searching for maps of a territory containing observers that make accurate maps with QM that cannot be combined to a global map?
2) What experiment could we do to distinguish between RQM and for example MWI? If indeed multiple observers automatically get agreeing QM maps by virtue of looking at the same territory, then what experiment will distinguish between a set of knitted-together QM maps and an RQM map as proposed by my first question? Mind you, such experiments might well exist (QM has trumped non-mathy philosophy without much trouble in the past), I just have a hard time thinking of one. And if there is no observable difference, then why would e favour RQM over the stiched-together map (which is claiming that QM is universal, which should make it simpler than having local partial QM with some other way of extending this beyond our observations)?
My apologies for creating such long replies, summarizing the above is hard. For what it’s worth I’d like to remark that your comment has made me update in favour of RQM by quite a bit (although I still find it unlikely) - before your comment I thought that RQM was some stubborn refusal to admid that QM might be universal, thereby violating Occam’s Razor, but when seen as an anti-prediction it seems sorta-plausible (although useless?).
To stick with the analogy of relativity, great efforts have been made there to ensure that all important physical formulas are Lorentz-invariant, i.e. do not depend on these artificial coordinate system. In an important sense the system does not depend on your coordinates, although for actual calculations (on a computer or something) such coordinates are needed. So while (General) Relativity indeed satisfies the last line you gave, it also explains exactly how (un)necessary such coordinate systems are, and explains exactly what can be expected to be shown without choosing a coordinate system.
Back to RQM. Here this important explanation of which observables are still independent of the observer(/initial frame) and which formulas are universal are painfully absent
..is echoed by no less than Jaynes:-
The title is taken from a
passage of Jaynes [2], presenting the current quantum
mechanical formalism as not purely epistemological; it is
a peculiar mixture describing in part realities of Nature,
in part incomplete human information about Nature – all
scrambled up by Heisenberg and Bohr into an omelette
that nobody has seen how to unscramble
RQM may not end in an I, but it is still an interptetation.
What the I in MWI means is that it is an interpretation, not a theory, and therefore neither offers new mathematical apparatus, nor testable predictions.
and finally we reject the idea that these observer-dependent representations can be combined to one global representation.
Not exactly, RQM objects to observer independent state. You can have global state, providing it is from the perspective of a Test Observer, and you can presumably stitch multiple maps into such a picture.
Or perhaps you mean that if you could write state in a manifestly basis-free way, you would no longer need to insist on an observer? I’m not sure. A lot of people are concerned about the apparent disappearance of the world in RQM.
There seems to be a realistic and a non realistic version of RQM. Rovellis version was not realistic, but some have added an ontology of relations.
In other words, where should we begin searching for maps of a territory containing observers that make accurate maps with QM that cannot be combined to a global map?
its more of a should not than a cannot.
2) What experiment could we do to distinguish between RQM and for example MWI?
Well, we can’t distinguish between MWI and CI, either.
Just because something is called an ‘interpretation’ does not mean it doesn’t have testable predictions. For example, macroscopic superposition discerns between CI and MWI (although CI keeps changing its definition of ‘macroscopic’).
I notice that I am getting confused again. Is RQM trying to say that reality via some unknown process the universe produces results to measurements, and we use wavefunctions as something like an interpolation tool to account for those observations, but different observations lead to different inferences and hence to different wavefunctions?
There is nothing in Copenhagen that forbids macroscopic superposition. The experimental results of macroscopic superposition in SQUIDs are usually calculated in terms of copenhagen (as are almost all experimental results).
That’s mainly because Copenhagen never specified macrsoscopic …but the idea of an unequivocal “cut” was at the back of a lot of copenhagenists minds, and it has been eaten away by various things over the years.
So there are obviously a lot of different things you could mean by “Copenhagen” or “in the back of a lot of copenhagenist minds” but the way it’s usually used by physicists nowadays is to mean “the Von Neumann axioms” because that is what is in 90+% of the textbooks.
Physicists are trained to understand things in terms of mathematical formalisms and experimental results, but that falls over when dealing with interpretation. Interpretations canot be settled empirically, by definition,, and formulae are not self interpreting.
For some values of “wavefunction”, you are going to have different observers writing different wavefunctions just because they are using different bases...that’s a practical issue that’s still true if you believe in, but cannot access, theOne True Basis, like a many worlder.
I am starting to get confused by RQM, I really did not get the impression that this is what was claimed. But suppose it is.
To stick with the analogy of relativity, great efforts have been made there to ensure that all important physical formulas are Lorentz-invariant, i.e. do not depend on these artificial coordinate system. In an important sense the system does not depend on your coordinates, although for actual calculations (on a computer or something) such coordinates are needed. So while (General) Relativity indeed satisfies the last line you gave, it also explains exactly how (un)necessary such coordinate systems are, and explains exactly what can be expected to be shown without choosing a coordinate system.
Back to RQM. Here this important explanation of which observables are still independent of the observer(/initial frame) and which formulas are universal are painfully absent. It seems that RQM as stated above is more of an anti-prediction - we accept that each observer can accurately describe his experimental outcomes using QM, and different observers agree with eachother because they are looking at the same territory, hence they should get matching maps, and finally we reject the idea that these observer-dependent representations can be combined to one global representation.
Again I stuggle to combine this method of thought with the fact that humans themselves are made of atoms. If we assume that wavefunctions are only very useful tools for predicting the outcomes of experiments, but the actual territory is not made of something that would be accurately represented by a wavefunction, I run into two immediate problems:
1) In order to make this belief pay rent I would like to know what sort of thing an accurate description of the universe would look like, according to RQM. In other words, where should we begin searching for maps of a territory containing observers that make accurate maps with QM that cannot be combined to a global map?
2) What experiment could we do to distinguish between RQM and for example MWI? If indeed multiple observers automatically get agreeing QM maps by virtue of looking at the same territory, then what experiment will distinguish between a set of knitted-together QM maps and an RQM map as proposed by my first question? Mind you, such experiments might well exist (QM has trumped non-mathy philosophy without much trouble in the past), I just have a hard time thinking of one. And if there is no observable difference, then why would e favour RQM over the stiched-together map (which is claiming that QM is universal, which should make it simpler than having local partial QM with some other way of extending this beyond our observations)?
My apologies for creating such long replies, summarizing the above is hard. For what it’s worth I’d like to remark that your comment has made me update in favour of RQM by quite a bit (although I still find it unlikely) - before your comment I thought that RQM was some stubborn refusal to admid that QM might be universal, thereby violating Occam’s Razor, but when seen as an anti-prediction it seems sorta-plausible (although useless?).
By the way, your complaint here...
..is echoed by no less than Jaynes:-
http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.6024
RQM may not end in an I, but it is still an interptetation.
What the I in MWI means is that it is an interpretation, not a theory, and therefore neither offers new mathematical apparatus, nor testable predictions.
Not exactly, RQM objects to observer independent state. You can have global state, providing it is from the perspective of a Test Observer, and you can presumably stitch multiple maps into such a picture.
Or perhaps you mean that if you could write state in a manifestly basis-free way, you would no longer need to insist on an observer? I’m not sure. A lot of people are concerned about the apparent disappearance of the world in RQM. There seems to be a realistic and a non realistic version of RQM. Rovellis version was not realistic, but some have added an ontology of relations.
its more of a should not than a cannot.
Well, we can’t distinguish between MWI and CI, either.
Just because something is called an ‘interpretation’ does not mean it doesn’t have testable predictions. For example, macroscopic superposition discerns between CI and MWI (although CI keeps changing its definition of ‘macroscopic’).
I notice that I am getting confused again. Is RQM trying to say that reality via some unknown process the universe produces results to measurements, and we use wavefunctions as something like an interpolation tool to account for those observations, but different observations lead to different inferences and hence to different wavefunctions?
There is nothing in Copenhagen that forbids macroscopic superposition. The experimental results of macroscopic superposition in SQUIDs are usually calculated in terms of copenhagen (as are almost all experimental results).
That’s mainly because Copenhagen never specified macrsoscopic …but the idea of an unequivocal “cut” was at the back of a lot of copenhagenists minds, and it has been eaten away by various things over the years.
So there are obviously a lot of different things you could mean by “Copenhagen” or “in the back of a lot of copenhagenist minds” but the way it’s usually used by physicists nowadays is to mean “the Von Neumann axioms” because that is what is in 90+% of the textbooks.
The von Neumann axioms aren’t self interpreting .
Physicists are trained to understand things in terms of mathematical formalisms and experimental results, but that falls over when dealing with interpretation. Interpretations canot be settled empirically, by definition,, and formulae are not self interpreting.
My point was only that nothing in the axioms prevents macroscopic superposition.
For some values of “wavefunction”, you are going to have different observers writing different wavefunctions just because they are using different bases...that’s a practical issue that’s still true if you believe in, but cannot access, theOne True Basis, like a many worlder.