Martin Daumer, Detlef Duerr, Sheldon Goldstein, Tim Maudlin, Roderich Tumulka and Nino Zanghi, a collection of scholars noted for their advocacy or realist interpretations of quantum mechanics, and Bohmian mechanics in particular, have posted an article on quant-ph that attacks the idea that quantum theory is “fundamentally about information”. The article is a response to a recent essay in Nature by Anton Zeilinger, and is mainly a criticism of his particular viewpoint.
Most of their argument is based on the fact that interpretations like Bohmian mechanics offer a clear counterexample to various claims, such as that QM shows nature is fundamentally indeterministic and that the Bell and Kochen-Specker no-go theorems rule out realism. I think this is all fair enough, and I agree that it is well worth taking the time to become familiar with the Bohm interpretation if one is at all interested in foundations. It is quite amazing how often it can be used as an example to clear up confusion and misunderstandings about what we can infer from QM. On the other hand, this is a far cry from saying that Bohmian mechanics should be taken seriously as a description of reality. There are several arguments against doing so, which would take too long to go into right now. Perhaps I will do so in another post when I have more free time.
In any case, Zeilinger’s Nature essay seems a rather easy target to me. It was a short article, and there was clearly not enough space for any detailed arguments. Whether or not you think that Zeilinger in fact has any compelling arguments, there are many other contemporary approaches that also claim QM is about “information” in some sense, and it would be good to see a more in depth response to all of these from the realist camp. Examples include the quantum Bayesianism of Caves, Fuchs and Schack; the axiomatic approach of Bub, Clifton and Halvorson; and Hardy’s axiomatics.
Those of you who are waiting for Rovellifest 2 – fear not, for it is coming within the next week or so. For now, I feel like I need to write something on a topic I feel positive about, to aviod this blog descending into a sea of negative criticisms.
7 responses to “Realists on the counter attack”