The third in a series of interview segments featuring Dr. Wolfgang Smith and Dr. Richard Smith, this remarkable interview ranges over a broad array of subjects, including this week’s further explication of the measurement problem of quantum mechanics.
A quantum-physical system is by nature probabilistic and can only be mathematically described by a wave function, which provides an ensemble of possible values. When the wave function interacts with a measuring instrument, the ensemble collapses to provide one precise empirical value.
Note well: a measuring instrument. It is not, in other words, the scientist or “observer” that causes this collapse!
Nor, for that matter, is the measuring instrument a “part” of the quantum-physical system that it measures—if it were, it could not cause a collapse in the first place, and there would be no measured value.
The Philos-Sophia Initiative’s feature documentary chronicling the life and work of Dr. Wolfgang Smith, The End of Quantum Reality, is now available.
