DISQUS

Just following up my last posting, if decoherence experiments can show a particle in two places at once (such as experimenters at NIST did "In effect, the atom was in two different places at the same time": see here) then that kills Bohm's Pilot Wave interpretation (never more than just one electron following a wave). So I think decoherence definitely has a role in understanding ontology.

Relevant page on my blog: http://www.ipod.org.uk/reality/reality_veiled_r...

"I think decoherence is oversold"

I don't agree. The way I see decoherence is that it may not be a perfect explanation of what happens during state vector reduction, but I classify it as "not perfect, but pretty close to what happens". I don't think it's oversold at all when you look at the pretty stunning results of experiments such as that Physicsweb link I posted.

I think I would disagree with you that decoherence is not an important pointer towards ontology - underlying reality. Especially when interpretations which include decoherence have experimental evidence - unlike pie in the sky interpretations, which people have conjured out of the air. I think Bohm's pilot wave interpretation, as a good example, is rendered obsolete when you realise that any interaction with the enviroment (e.g., a photon entering the double-slit experiment) can destroy interference effects.

Don't get too excited about the video iPod. This iPod is just a stop-gap - apparently there's a new, full-blown video iPod coming out next year.

Also the rumour is that a pink, Madonna iPod nano is coming out next month.

Can I plug my iPod news site: http://www.ipod.org.uk. Thanks.

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http://www.ipod.org.uk/ipod_free_music.asp