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From: David Wolpert
Sent: Friday, July 31, 1998 12:06 PM
DW> Moreover, a good 99.99% of physicists are perfectly happy with the
Copenhagen interpretation, and proponents of the other interpretations
(many worlds, etc.) would simply respond with astonishment to the idea
that probabilities aren't objective - where the interpretations
diverge is in their assessment of the source of the probabilities, not
in the physical nature of those probabilities.
If physicists accept the Copenhagen interpretation then they simply aren't
using the term 'probability' the same way as Bayesians or as it is employed
in lay usage. Quantum theory is about frequencies - it has nothing to do
with probability unless you happen to be concerned about what may happen in
a single instance - which physicists as a general rule are not
DW> In any case, the important point is not whether the universe is based
on objective probabilities, but that it *could be* and still be fully
self-consistent mathematically. I.e., there is NO logical necessity to
the degree of belief interprtation. The universe does not demand
it. Rather it is (at most) a viewpoint imposed on the universe, by
humans.
CDC> The important about the degree of belief interpretation is that it is
NOT about the universe. Rather, it is about what we don't know.