The orthodox formulation of QM (given in Griffiths and most other modern QM texts)...
Here’s Griffiths on what he calls the “orthodox position” on quantum indeterminacy. This is from pages 3-5 of his text:
It was the act of measurement that forced the particle to “take a stand”… Jordan said it most starkly: “Observations not only disturb what is to be measured, they produce it… We compel [the particle] to assume a definite position.”… Among physicists it has always been the most widely accepted position. Note, however, that if it is correct there is something very peculiar about the act of measurement...
We say that the wave function collapses upon measurement, to a spike… There are, then, two entirely distinct kinds of physical processes: “ordinary” ones, in which the wave function evolves in a leisurely fashion under the Schrodinger equation, and “measurements”, in which [it] suddenly and discontinuously collapses.
Going by Griffiths’ own account (and I picked Griffiths because he’s the authority you cited), what Eliezer says about the orthodox interpretation is not a strawman. In fact, Griffiths explicitly discusses the view you call the “orthodox formulation”, except he doesn’t call it “orthodox”. He describes it as an alternative to the orthodox position, and labels it the “agnostic position”.
I think your flavor of instrumentalism is a respectable position in the foundational debate, but to describe it as the standard position is incorrect. I think there was a time when physicists in general had a more operationalist bent, but things have changed.
Hmm, I suppose my personal classification is slightly different. Thanks for pointing that out.
The agnostic position is “shut up and calculate”, which is basically resigning to one’s inability to model the Born rule with anything better.
The instrumentalist position is to admit that doing research related to the Born rule origins is essential for progress in understanding the fundamentals of QM, but to also acknowledge that interpretations are not interesting physical models and at best have only an inspirational value.
The realist position (hidden variables are fundamental, collapse is fundamental, or MWI is fundamental, or Bohmian mechanics is fundamental) is the one that is easiest to falsify, as soon as it sticks its neck out with testable predictions (Bohm and collapse do not play well with relativity, local hidden variables run afoul of the Bell theorem, MWI makes no testable predictions whatsoever).
I suppose the confusion is that last paragraph: “There are, then, two entirely distinct kinds of physical processes: “ordinary” ones, in which the wave function evolves in a leisurely fashion under the Schrodinger equation, and “measurements”, in which [it] suddenly and discontinuously collapses.” This is a realist position, so I don’t favor it, because it does not make any testable predictions.
I think your flavor of instrumentalism is a respectable position in the foundational debate, but to describe it as the standard position is incorrect.
OK, I will stop calling it standard, just instrumental.
I think there was a time when physicists in general had a more operationalist bent, but things have changed.
Here’s Griffiths on what he calls the “orthodox position” on quantum indeterminacy. This is from pages 3-5 of his text:
Going by Griffiths’ own account (and I picked Griffiths because he’s the authority you cited), what Eliezer says about the orthodox interpretation is not a strawman. In fact, Griffiths explicitly discusses the view you call the “orthodox formulation”, except he doesn’t call it “orthodox”. He describes it as an alternative to the orthodox position, and labels it the “agnostic position”.
I think your flavor of instrumentalism is a respectable position in the foundational debate, but to describe it as the standard position is incorrect. I think there was a time when physicists in general had a more operationalist bent, but things have changed.
Hmm, I suppose my personal classification is slightly different. Thanks for pointing that out.
The agnostic position is “shut up and calculate”, which is basically resigning to one’s inability to model the Born rule with anything better.
The instrumentalist position is to admit that doing research related to the Born rule origins is essential for progress in understanding the fundamentals of QM, but to also acknowledge that interpretations are not interesting physical models and at best have only an inspirational value.
The realist position (hidden variables are fundamental, collapse is fundamental, or MWI is fundamental, or Bohmian mechanics is fundamental) is the one that is easiest to falsify, as soon as it sticks its neck out with testable predictions (Bohm and collapse do not play well with relativity, local hidden variables run afoul of the Bell theorem, MWI makes no testable predictions whatsoever).
I suppose the confusion is that last paragraph: “There are, then, two entirely distinct kinds of physical processes: “ordinary” ones, in which the wave function evolves in a leisurely fashion under the Schrodinger equation, and “measurements”, in which [it] suddenly and discontinuously collapses.” This is a realist position, so I don’t favor it, because it does not make any testable predictions.
OK, I will stop calling it standard, just instrumental.
How?