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Quantum Technology: Where to Look for the Quantum Measurement Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

Nancy Cartwright
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Extract

This paper, I am afraid, advocates the philosophy of technology without actually doing it. It can best be seen as a plea for the philosophical importance of technology; in this case, importance to one of the most widely discussed problems in philosophy of physics—the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. What I want to do here is to lay out a point of view that takes the measurement problem out of the abstract mathematical structure of theory, where we discuss questions about unitary operators or conditions for the disappearance of certain inner products supposed to represent interference terms, and locate it elsewhere. Where is the measurement problem? Answer: It had better be found in the quantum technology or it is not to be found at all. My view in many respects follows ideas I have learned from Willis Lamb.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 38 , March 1995 , pp. 73 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1995

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References

1 Lamb, Willis (1969), ‘An operational interpretation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics’, Physics Today 22, pp. 23–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lamb, W. (1986), ‘Quantum theory of measurement’, Annals, New York Academy of Sciences, 480, pp. 407–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lamb, W., ‘Theory of quantum mechanical measurements’, in Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: In the Light of New Technology, ed. Namiki, M.et al., (Japan Physical Society, pp. 185–192)Google Scholar; Lamb, W., ‘Classical measurements on a quantum mechanical system’, 1987, Nuc. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.) 6 (1989), pp. 197–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lamb, W., ‘Suppose Newton had invented wave mechanics’ (unpublished, 1993)Google Scholar; Lamb, W., ‘Quantum theory of measurement: three lectures’, lectures delivered at the London School of Economics in July 1993Google Scholar.

2 See James Park's measurement1, and measurement2 in Park, J. (1969), ‘Quantum theoretical concepts of measurement’, Phil, of Science 35, pp. 205–231CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Sargent, M. III, Scully, M. O. and Lamb, W. Jr., Laser Physics (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1974)Google Scholar.

4 For a second example see my more extended discussion in ‘Where in the world is the measurement problem’, Philosophia Naturali., (forthcoming).

5 This section is taken directly from my ‘Where in the world is the measurement problem’, Philosophia Naturali. (forthcoming).

6 Willis Lamb ‘Quantum theory of measurement: three lectures’, lectures delivered at the London School of Economics in July 1993, p. 3.