Event Detail
Wed Apr 12, 2023 4:10–6 PM |
Working Group in the History and Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Science Paul Skokowski (Stanford) Superpositions and beliefs about superpositions |
It seems that in our world experiments have determinate outcomes. However there are interpretations of quantum mechanics, known as no-collapse theories, where the same kinds of experiments instead result it superpositional states – states composed of different outcomes, rather than a single determinate outcome. What, in such a world, would an observer’s beliefs about these superpositional results be like? In this talk I’ll challenge some claims about how to evaluate the mental states of observers in a no-collapse world, and in so doing consider the plausibility of no-collapse theories.