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Open Journal of Philosophy

Measurement Problem and Non-Locality: An Alternative Interpretation

Pierre C. Sabatier

Published Dec 23, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Measurement problem and Non-locality are classical problems in Quantum Mechanics and still unsolved in spite of the many proposed solutions. A new interpretation is proposed here, based on the idea that they are closely related problems. But it requires that we consider space and time not as objective mediums but as features of our representation of reality, as Kant explained more than two centuries ago.

DOI
10.4236/ojpp.2025.151001

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The Measurement problem and Non-locality are classical problems in Quantum Mechanics and still unsolved in spite of the many proposed solutions. A new interpretation is proposed here, based on the idea that they are closely related problems. But it requires that we consider space and time not as objective mediums but as features of our representation of reality, as Kant explained more than two centuries ago.
Abstract Although much has been written about the measurement problem, there is still significant disagreement about what the problem really is and what a solution should look like. In this chapter I present a brief introduction to quantum mechanics and the measurement problem, and then I argue that the measurement problem should be understood in part a problem of epistemology: solving the problem requires telling a consistent story about how the reality underlying quantum mechanics could allow us to reliably come to know about that reality via the medium of our empirical evidence for quantum mechanics, and an interpretation of quantum mechanics which fails to achieve this is self-undermining.
Quantum mechanics is based on Schrodinger’s wave function with linear superposition of vectors in a Hilbert space. Due to superposition, multiple physical states are considered simultaneously for the same time point, but when the corresponding quantum mechanical experiments are realized, there is only one outcome and not a superposition of pointer positions. This observation characterizes the quantum mechanical measurement problem, which for about a century found multiple interpretations, which can be classified as potentiality, as proposed by Heisenberg, or as real physical entities, for instance fields. Potentialities are yet inexistent in reality and unobservable in the present, since they represent a possible future. Thus, they can only be an intra-mental representation of a future process and not a physical extra-mental process ongoing in the present. There is coexistence of a physical object observable in reality and a mental prediction by an observer concerning the future behavior of this object. The characterization of quantum mechanical formalism by some physicists corresponds to a prediction and therefore to a mental representation of the future behavior of elementary particles and not to a description of an ongoing extra-mental process. Prediction in life and science has some characteristics, which resemble the measurement problem, since it undergoes a “multiple to one” reduction of mental potentialities to only one observable real outcome. Besides quantum mechanics, such reductions can also be found with many kinds of predictions, in classical physics for regular and irregular dynamical processes and in humans for programming future actions. Superposition in classical physics only concerns variable effects, but in quantum mechanics includes variable effects and non-localizable causes. Quantum mechanics, interpreted as prediction of future outcomes with multiple potentialities but only one realization, would resemble the general prediction problem in life and science and thereby loos its weird aspects.
For over a century, scientists have been fascinated by the strange behaviour of matter at the quantum level, where particles can exist in many states at once and affect each other instantly across distances. This paper explores this realm of quantum mechanics by focusing on wave–particle duality, superposition, entanglement and the measurement problem. It shows how these concepts defy the foundations of clas-sical physics to challenge assumptions about determinism, locality, interconnection and objectivity. The paper maintains that although quantum theory works remarkably well, we lack a clear account of what kind of reality it describes, as major interpretations such as Copenhagen, Many-Worlds and objective collapse still struggle to match quantum theory’s success with a clear picture of reality. yet as its major interpretations offer com-peting and unresolved pictures of the world. Schrödinger’s cat illustrates this tension to showcase how macroscopic systems can expose the limits of observation and the line be-tween classical and quantum worlds. The paper concludes that these quantum principles are underpinned by both technical and philosophical challenges and they force us to re-think causality and the role of the observer in explaining reality.
Debates about the foundations of quantum theory usually circle around two main challenges: the so-called 'measurement problem' and a claimed tension between quantum theory and relativity theory that arises from the phenomena labelled 'quantum non-locality'. This work explores the possibility of a 'therapeutic approach' to these problems that regards them as arising from mistaken conceptual presuppositions and quantum theory as a fully respectable theory that is fine as it stands. Pursuing this project, the book develops and defends the idea that quantum states do not represent features of physical reality, it distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of anthropocentric notions in foundational accounts, it considers the nature of explanation in quantum theory, and it addresses complications that arise in quantum field theory. In addition, it argues that quantum theory is 'locally causal' inasmuch as quantum probabilities, properly construed, are independent of what occurs at space-like distance.
We present a historical-epistemological analysis of the foundations of quantum mechanics, highlighting the relationships between quantum mechanics and scientific realism, as well as the influence of the neo-positivist philosophy of the first decades of the 20th century. The great significance of the measurement process in the context of quantum mechanics is underlined as an essential element in providing a coherent description of reality, moving from micro to macrocosm, as well as the role that the measurement apparatus and the consciousness of the observer assume during the act of measurement, the related ontological problems, the question of the objectification of the wave function, and that of the definition of discernibility. We consider also an overview of the most important alternative proposals to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics (Copenhagen interpretation), with particular reference to hidden variable theories and other alternatives to standard quantum mechanics philosophical approach, that are modifying the vision of reality, such as the Everett’s many-worlds theory, the QBism and unified holistic approaches, such as the Primordial Dynamic Space.