From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tdatirv!sarima Thu Feb 20 15:20:44 EST 1992
Article 3729 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Functionalist Theory of Qualia
Message-ID: <412@tdatirv.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 92 19:37:25 GMT
References: <1992Feb4.160229.20899@cs.yale.edu> <1992Feb4.193653.25027@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1992Feb5.220638.9673@cs.yale.edu> <1992Feb6.055620.23808@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <jbaxter.697533284@adelphi> <406@tdatirv.UUCP> <1992Feb12.171650.22626@gpu.utc
s.utoronto.c
Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine
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In article <1992Feb12.171650.22626@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:
|>This suggests to me that wave-function collapse is a simple physical process
|>that occurs when a wave packet interacts with certain types of systems.
|>
|I hope you do not mean to ressurect hidden variable theory? It seems to me
|pretty dead as a result of Aspect's experiments. 

Goodness no!  That is NOT what I meant.

Though as a mater of fact the Aspect experiments only ruled out *local*
hidden variable models, non-local hidden variables are still technically
viable (if you can stomach action at a distance causality).

|And I would hesitate to refer to 'wave-function collapse' as a 'simple physical
|process'. After all it it involves 'instantenouos' correlations (faster than
|speed of light).

Well, perhaps I overstated the matter,  my main point is that a *mind* does
not seem to be necessary, just a rather simple measuring device (I think
a photo-cell was used in the experiment I read about).

Roughly, a variant of the split-beam interferometer in which a detector is
placed on one path, but connected in such a way that it is impossible to
actually determine which way the photons actually went, the interference
pattern is still eliminated.

This result was reported in Science News (and presumably elsewhere) last
month.
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uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)



