- #71
Ken G
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I don't know if there is a name for it, or if anyone else has said it first. I only know what I can show: you don't get Bell's theorem if you don't adopt local realism. That means any approach that rejects the assumption that a system comes compete with a set of unique probabilities for each set of observations that could be done on it, including the assumption that those probabilities are independent of each other, suffices to make that theorem irrelevant. For example, see http://drchinese.com/David/Bell_Theorem_Easy_Math.htm, where the assumption I refer to is called "local hidden variables."ddd123 said:Is there an article/book where this is looked at in detail? Or, does this position you're explaining have a name?
So in other words, we are talking about our options for not adopting local hidden variables. What I am critiquing is the philosophy that says if we don't have local hidden variables, we must have nonlocal hidden variables. I say drop the whole idea that we have hidden variables, meaning variables "hidden in the parts", where those variables determine unique probabilities for any observations on the parts, independent of any observations anywhere else, and can only be changed by "propagating influences." Instead, just say that a system is a preparation together with the mapping it produces, where that mapping is a map between any set of hypothetical observations you can name, and the associated set of probabilities. That's what quantum mechanics actually does, so my approach is a kind of "minimalist" philosophy applied to scientific interpretation.