Hacker News Reader

> There is not a fixed state of each 'quarter' in each 'box'. They are truly not determined until one is resolved;

Isn't that unknowable? And aren't both situations (fixed vs undetermined) effectively the same from an observer's point of view?

View on HN

No. What you are calling 'fixed' is a local hidden variable - an internal state that has yet to be measured but is already determined. This state of affairs is ruled out by Bell's Theorem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem

That's only true if you take the Copenhagen interpretation. There are other interpretations (like 'consistent histories' for example). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation#Alter...

Other interpretations of quantum mechanics do not generally violate Bell's Theorem, since it appears to be confirmed by experiment. There are other interpretations which choose to abandon locality rather than hidden variables, such as the De Broglie-Bohm pilot wave interpretation. But consistent histories doesn't even do that. It's actually pretty similar to the Copenhagen interpretation.

I didn't say anything about violating Bell's theorem. Yes pilot wave theory is a better alternative that doesn't require spooky action at a distance but consistent histories doesn't require wavefunction collapse (which is a huge source of spookiness as well).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com