[extropy-chat] Popper and QT

[gts]

On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:45:38 -0400, scerir <scerir at libero.it> wrote:

Thanks for looking into this subject, scerir.

> Experiments done, since 1995, (below) confirm the prediction
> of QM. Popper's argument (no less subtle than E.P.R.'s
> realistic argument) is then wrong. [but]....in a certain sense,Popper  
> was also a bit right.

What a shame Popper died in 1994, before these experiments!

I wonder how Popper himself would have interpreted the results.

In particular I am interested in his philosophy of "objective  
propensities," and whether it applies not only to QT but to the  
interesting subject of probability in general.

He writes something about objective propensity in his book _Conjectures  
and Refutations_ though his words there do not address QT in any detail.  
His notion of objective propensity seems a very common sense approach to  
probability. For example we might say that a fair coin has an objective  
50% propensity to fall heads, and that this propensity to fall heads is  
'objective' in that it is defined completely by the physical, objective  
experimental arrangement without regard to any observer. I believe Popper  
was trying to apply that same common-sense notion of objective probability  
to quantum statistics.

I'd be interested to know your opinion as to whether these experiments  
corroborate or falsify or say anything conclusive about Popper's  
philosophy of probability.

-gts