Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!ihnp4!qantel!hplabs!sri-unix.ARPA!DAM%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA From: DAM%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Quantum Field Theory Message-ID: <397@sri-arpa.ARPA> Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 12:47:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.397 Posted: Mon Jul 15 12:47:00 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 20:56:17 EDT Lines: 35 I appreciated your message on quantum field theory; I found it enlightening and will read it more carefully later. However certain aspects of the message bothered me. In particular consider the following statement: Notice that I avoid the use of the term "wave function collapse" here as it creates a misunderstanding of what is going on ... What IS going on? I would be perfectly willing to listen to a mathematical description of the measurement process. Are the laws of physics governing "measurement" different from the laws of physics which govern "non-measurement" interactions such as scattering? If we assume that some events are measurements and others aren't and that we know the difference between measurement events and non-measurement events then the mathematics is clear: measurements result in eigenstates. But I find this assumed distinction between measurement and non-measurement quite bothersome. All of the quantum mechanical equations of motion, wavefunctions and stuff are "in your head" just as the newtonian equations of motion are "in your head". The only reality is the firing of the phototubes. But isn't a phototube a physical object? Can't we assume that a phototube is made of atoms and that our theories of atoms apply to the phototube? Or would you say that the phototube itself is just a computational device for predicting perception? Is awareness the only reality? I would like to believe in external physical reality and I would like to have a good mathematical model of what that reality is. What do you think? Is there an external reality? What is it? I'm willing to listen to the mathematics. I even think I understand it to some extent. But I don't think that the mathematics has yet answered these basic questions.