PSR is dead. Long live the PSR!
I think I have found an interesting paradox of sorts:
1. The Principle of Sufficient Reason is refuted by the Free Will theorems of Conway and Kochen. Here they are:
https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0604079
https://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3286
and there is a recent development by Kochen,
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.00868
In summary, if an experimenter is free to choose which one of a certain number of buttons to press, then the spin-1 particle (actually an entangled pair of particles) also has a small amount of the same freedom.
Critics claim that the assumption of freedom on the part of the experimenter is unwarranted. These are the superdeterminists. But, even granting superdeterminism, the PSR is not saved, for there is no reason or cause for the observed correlations between the entangled particles.
It should also be noted that the FWT proves freedom and not randomness.
The Principle of Sufficient Reason is dead!
2. Another important result in quantum mechanics is the Church-Turing-Deutsch Principle, or as I prefer the, Deutsch Principle.
Here's the paper:
https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-content/deutsch85.pdf
Here's the Principle:
Every finite realizable physical system can be perfectly simulated by a universal model computing machine operating by finite means.
I think the Deutsch Principle is none other than the Principle of Sufficient Reason made precise and physical.
Long live the Principle of Sufficient Reason!
A paradox?
1. The Principle of Sufficient Reason is refuted by the Free Will theorems of Conway and Kochen. Here they are:
https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0604079
https://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3286
and there is a recent development by Kochen,
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.00868
In summary, if an experimenter is free to choose which one of a certain number of buttons to press, then the spin-1 particle (actually an entangled pair of particles) also has a small amount of the same freedom.
Critics claim that the assumption of freedom on the part of the experimenter is unwarranted. These are the superdeterminists. But, even granting superdeterminism, the PSR is not saved, for there is no reason or cause for the observed correlations between the entangled particles.
It should also be noted that the FWT proves freedom and not randomness.
The Principle of Sufficient Reason is dead!
2. Another important result in quantum mechanics is the Church-Turing-Deutsch Principle, or as I prefer the, Deutsch Principle.
Here's the paper:
https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-content/deutsch85.pdf
Here's the Principle:
Every finite realizable physical system can be perfectly simulated by a universal model computing machine operating by finite means.
I think the Deutsch Principle is none other than the Principle of Sufficient Reason made precise and physical.
Long live the Principle of Sufficient Reason!
A paradox?
Comments (2)
No, just one more reason for concluding that the Free Will Theorem does not refute the PSR. I refer readers of this post to exchanges between tom, @Michael and myself on the Principle of Sufficient Reason thread, where that result was already established, apparently to everyone's satisfaction but tom's.