[time 571] Re: [time 554] the Computation of Actuality: A quote


Stephen P. King (stephenk1@home.com)
Wed, 18 Aug 1999 16:36:34 -0400


Dear Youlian et al,

Youlian Troyanov wrote:
>
> Pretty close to Borges. I like your train of thought. Please elaborate
> on how you understand the Chu connection to the Lexicons.

        I found a neat statement by Ted Bastin that we can use, (note the
stared parts):

        "... what is the $minimum$ that quantum theory has to take over from
classical thinking to get a particle trajectory? ...

1) The points must be $discriminable$. *One must be able to know one
from another.* (In the classical idea of a line, of course, one would
always be able to make measurements independently of of the definition
of the points which would settle at once the discriminability of the
points.)

2) The points will have to be $ordered$. *That is to say each point will
have to have a definite successor and a definite predecessor at any
given stage of building up of the line in order that meaning can be
attached to the instruction 'interpolate a point between two existing
ones'.*

3) There must be a 'topological cohesion' of the points. *It is this
property of topological cohesion that Landau and Lifschitz point out
degenerates as more and more precision is demanded in the localization
of points.*

        Requirement number 3 is intuitive and it is not clear how to express it
exactly in general. However, there exists one special case in which it
can be given a clear meaning. This is the case of a 'space of potential
infinity' in which **a construction rule is defined for new points and
in which experimental discovery or 'observation' of the new points at
this abstract level is *identical with the construction process*. In
this special case the smoothness of the curve or 'tendency of the points
to keep together' is not something over and above the discriminating and
ordering of the points, but is the same process."**

Ted Bastin, "How does a particle get from A to B?" in Quantum Theory and
Beyond, edited by Ted Bastin. Cambridge U. Press, 1971, pg. 288-9

Onward,

Stephen



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