- #176
rubi
Science Advisor
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- 348
All the things like POVM's, open quantum systems, and so on, aren't really a generalization of standard QM. They have an equivalent description in standard QM with a larger Hilbert space. So in order to discuss foundational issues, we can just discuss standard QM and then later take partial traces and so on if we want to restrict to subsystems. If we can clarify the interpretational issues in standard QM, we automatically clarify them for open quantum systems as well.naima said:I know that we can go on to decompose everything in term of vectors, to add them, to square them, to multiply each case by a probability, to add them again. It works very well. But...
No, a brain is just matter like everything else. And information isn't a primitive concept at all. These concepts don't have a special status. If there is no brain, then all the processes still happen. There is just nobody who think about them. For instance, there might be a Hamiltonian that describes the whole universe and it just doesn't make matter accumulate into things like brains. A brain is just a certain constellation of matter, just like a chair or a molecule, although a quite complex one. (Note that this has nothing to do with consciousness or so. I just describe all the matter in the universe within the same quantum theory, including the matter that makes up physicists. If this matter is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics as well, then this should certainly be possible.)atyy said:But you still need "brain" or "information" as something special. If there is no brain in the universe, then does the theory predict that anything happens?