Tom de Saegher (Western Ontario): 'On Equivalent Modificatory Solutions to the Measurement Problem'
Please note that this week's seminar is taking place on Tuesday, rather than Monday.
Possible modificatory solutions to the measurement problem are often framed as changes to the state space of quantum mechanics, changes to dynamics or both. This is natural given the kinematics-dynamics conception of theory structure. In contrast, I present a way of framing the modificatory options that is natural (in the same sense) given the process theory view of structure used in diagrammatic quantum mechanics (Coecke & Kissinger, 2017). I sketch the possible strategies for constructing a process theory where, instead of incorporating primitive nondeterministic measurement processes, other constraints ensure that states not offering a supervenience base to determinate macroscopic situations do not arise. I then discuss differences between the visual inferences supported by realist theories constructed in this framework and the visual inferences supported by seemingly equivalent realist solutions framed in the old way. This will offer a sense in which the newly framed modificatory strategies are not interpretationally equivalent to the old.
