Re: Identity

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 00:27:23 +0100

Randall Randall writes:

> The very language you use betrays the assumption that they
> are not, in fact, identical. To wit, "positions" is plural,
> and perfect identity would require that they have an identical
> position, no?

Hang language. Can you give me a measurement procedure how you are supposed to distinguish between these copies if your observation of their spacetime trajectories is interrupted? Space itself isn't labelled, nor are system's particles.

I'd presume otherwise identical objects is indistinguishable, since space is rotationally and translationally invariant. (It's actually not enantioinvariant, but you'll find that out if you look _very_ closely).

ciao,
'gene