Re: New paper by Deutsch on quantum teleportation

Paul Hughes (paul@i2.to)
Tue, 08 Jun 1999 22:22:02 -0700

hal@finney.org wrote:

> [snips]David Deutsch is one of the pioneers of quantum computing... He argues
> that
> quantum information is essentially local, contradicting the accepted
> interpretation. And since the Heisenberg interpretation provides such an
> interpretation,
> quantum mechanics should properly be viewed as local. This paper is part of
> what I see as an increasing trend to demystify
> quantum theory. There are several approaches, including the transactional
> interpretation, ideas based on time symmetry, no-collapse approaches,
> which are moving us away from the spooky action at a distance which was
> so upsetting to early physicists like Einstein. It may well be that in
> another few decades we will have a quantum theory which would be much
> more philosophically acceptable to the early pioneers of QM.

Putting aside the fact that the whole truth about QM remains to be determined, you seem to be rather gleeful that we can and/or should eliminate any 'spookiness' in QM. If so, why? I rather liked the fact that QM can be so unsettling. From an *extropic* point-of-view, the non-locality and uncertainty of QM leaves more possible pathways for increasing extropy than a purely classical view. Obviously, science is about uncovering the truth, but personally I'd be much more gleeful if QM turns out to be even weirder than it is now.

Paul Hughes