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From: padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: ROSEN vs Wishful Thinkers (?) - (Scientification)
Message-ID: <15@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 14:14:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.15
Posted: Fri Oct  4 14:14:12 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 04:31:27 EDT
References: <253@yetti.UUCP> <1727@pyuxd.UUCP> <690@mmintl.UUCP> <759@utastro.UUCP> <705@mmintl.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 34

> In article <759@utastro.UUCP> padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) writes:
> >> ...  The evidence for
> >> quantum uncertainty is stronger than just "we can determine no cause".
> >> This is not the place and I don't have the time to go into it (there was
> >> a Scientific American article dealing with some of the issues a couple of
> >> years back).  But if you really believe in determinism, you are being every
> >> bit as unscientific as the creationists -- the theory is overwhelmingly
> >> accepted by those in the field.
> >
> >Quantum mechanics is a theory of measurement. As far as I know it only says
> >that there are limitations on the precision to which events can be measured,
> >i.e. there is an uncertainty associated with certain types of measurement.
> >This is not the same as saying that indeterminism is correct, only that
> >we can not measure a system and conclude that it is deterministic. The
> >system may be, but we cannot in practice ascertain that fact.
> 
> Your knowledge is incomplete.  First of all, quantum mechanics is a theory
> of how particles behave.  There are results from quantum mechanics
> which are not explainable by *any* deterministic theory unless special
> relativity is wrong, and the speed of light is not a limit; indeed, there
> can be no limit to communications speeds.  But the Lorentz transformations
> would still apply (they have been experimentally validated).  The result
> would be causally linked events where depending on one's frame of reference,
> one or the other may be the first to occur.  (Any possible joint cause
> would have to happen after one of the events in some frames of reference.)
> 
> Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
> Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108

My statement was based on the replies given to this question that I put
to two Ph.D's in this area of physics. I would be interested in seeing
a reference to the contrary.

Padraig Houlahan.