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Post 20

Friday, October 1, 2004 - 6:51amSanction this postReply
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First of all, this conveys an inability to have truly grasped the fundamental essence of quantum physics, and beyond that, goes so far as to naively -- or even arrogantly -- generalize human-scale causality to the quantum scale.

What Peikoff is basically saying is that he intuitively knows what is really going on, at the quantum level, and that it's just a matter of time before physicists confirm his beliefs. This, despite no evidence which supports anything but apparent actual randomness of subatomic happenings at any given point in time.


Unfortunately, my copy of OPAR is currently everywhere in my apartment and car simultaneously (no, sorry, I'm just not sure where it is right now), so I can't check the context of the quote, and if Peikoff elaborates on this point any further I can't respond to anything else he says on the matter. But given just this specific quote, I think you're misinterpreting him. He is not saying that he knows magically that quantum entities will exhibit causality. All he is saying here is that the fact that we are unable because of the nature of the tools we currently use for measurement to predict quantum events is not sufficient evidence to reject causality in the quantum world. Quantum events still may not be causal, but before anyone can make such a claim they have to furnish better evidence than our inability to presently predict them.

Now, he may be saying this as part of an a priori claim that quantum events are causal. If he is, he is not entirely unjustified in this either. Everything we have encountered thus far in the universe has exhibited causality; doubting that quantum events do as well without some very convincing evidence is about as silly as claiming that, even though every rock we've dropped thus far has fallen downward at 9.8 m/s^2, we have to consider that the next one might go up with some constant velocity. The burden of proof for a noncausal quantum world is on the advocates of such a world, and to the extent of my knowledge, they have not furnished it.

(Incidentally, simply the fact that scientists have made as much progress as they have in the field of quantum computing seems to indicate that the quantum world is at least sufficiently controllable and predictable for human purposes.)

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Post 21

Friday, October 1, 2004 - 9:26amSanction this postReply
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Nature Leseul writes,
 Unfortunately, my copy of OPAR is everywhere in my apartment and car simultaneously (no sorry I'm just not sure where it is right now)
That is about the funniest thing that I've read in a long time.  Even though quantum theory deals with the subatomic level and the book is above that level.

But just for fun I have some important questions about Nature's copy of OPAR. 

1.  Does the particular copy currently exist if he isn't observing it?
2. Are there in fact multiple copies belonging to Nature, and if so do the others disappear once he finds one of them?
3.  What if someone else finds them or it?
4.  If you passed Nature's copy of OPAR through a slit where would it end up?
5.  Does Nature's copy of OPAR act like a particle or like a wave?
6.  What is the real "nature" of Nature's copy of OPAR?
7.  Are there other versions of Nature's copy of OPAR in parallel universes? 
8.  Can a cat in a box read Nature's copy of OPAR?

Bill


Post 22

Friday, October 1, 2004 - 5:25pmSanction this postReply
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Bill....hilarious!

Post 23

Friday, October 1, 2004 - 5:38pmSanction this postReply
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2. Are there in fact multiple copies belonging to Nature, and if so do the others disappear once he finds one of them?


This raises an important legal ramification of quantum reality. If there are copies of the book in each “possible” location if I don't know its “actual” location, then are the extra copies made in violation of Dr. Peikoff's intellectual property? Am I legally required to keep my copy of the book in my sight at all times, to ensure that no copies are made without the consent of the copyright holder?

Post 24

Saturday, October 2, 2004 - 7:31amSanction this postReply
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Legally speaking, I think you owe Dr. Peikoff like, oh, I dont know...(infinity x purchase price of book=amount owed) for all of these quantum copies you have! Of course, if I were your lawyer, I would argue the "...and nowhere" aspect and demand a refund for the single copy!

Post 25

Saturday, October 2, 2004 - 8:16amSanction this postReply
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Scott is right--but he didn't take it far enough.  He also deserves great respect for being the first plainiff's lawyer (I think) to argue for infinite damages. :)

 Nature owes Dr. Peikoff for each of these copies--but only in their respective universes.  Of course Nature should have the money to pay for one copy in each of the universes in which he has a copy--and should have paid for each one when he bought it.

Bill


Post 26

Saturday, October 2, 2004 - 7:04pmSanction this postReply
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Just got it and have been reading it and, really, it is a superb issue. The interview with NB is excellent--good questions and really very sensible, coherent, and suggestive answers on all topics. I will be examining them for a while to see what might be developed from them, although I already notice that on a number of fronts NB has developed his Objectivism not dissimilarly from how I and several neo-Objectivists have. The Free Radical ought to get a very wide reader base with issues like this one.

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Post 27

Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 2:09pmSanction this postReply
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Peikoff has not made an unwarranted stance.  His foot is set in the concept of identity and causality, these 2 concepts are as solid as mathematics.

When you make the claim that randomness exists, you are claiming that causality and identity do not exist.

Thus, when a person cannot understand why some event happened, it is because of the law of causality that he thinks his knowledge is lacking(as Peikoff is saying) - he does not think therefore that the world is random.  In effect, by saying the world is random is to hold the idea of the primacy of conciousness because randomness is a state of conciousness but you are trying to make this randomness a fact of reality.

-Bill


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