AI and cognitive psychology rant (getting more and more OT - tell me if I should shut up)

[John J. Lee]

mis6 at pitt.edu (Michele Simionato) writes:

> Stephen Horne <steve at ninereeds.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message news:
[...]
> In the last couple of centuries we have
> lost our faith in God (fortunately/unfortunately) so now there is
[...]

Again, I think the statistics are against you, Michele!  Most people
on the planet believe in a God.  Most Americans believe in a God.
Dunno for sure about Europeans, but I'd be surprised if it were
otherwise.


> My point is that this is an INTERPRETATION: depending on your religious
> belief you may find the realistic interpretation more or less appealing
> (Einstein was against it).
> 
> This is not a point of Physics: both interpretation say that when we
> measure we will get 50% of dead cats, and actually we get that. This
> is Physics; the rest is speculation. You may adhere to the realist

That way of thinking (instrumentalism) is seductive, but wrong.  I
refer you to Deutsch's book again (getting repetetive, I know).


> interpretation, but in this case you must loose the property of
> locality, and most people are so unhappy with this, that they
[...]

Not in the MWI (I'm extremely hazy on this point now, though :-( if I
ever did really understand it).


> What it is really interesting it to understand how measurement works,
> how to pass from microscopic to macroscopic, how to give a better
> description of what happens behind the wave function collapse. 
> This is an *hard* job, but there is an active line of research on 
[...]

It's rather easier if you accept the MWI, of course.


John