Year: 2023
Type: preprint
Abstract: We discuss Wiseman, Cavalcanti and Rieffel's "thoughtful" local friendliness no-go theorem and the experimental programme they propose to test local friendliness inequalities. We argue that, to prove the theorem, the assumptions need to be strengthened to exclude the possibility of variable numbers of thoughtful agents existing in different phases of the experiment. We argue further that this possibility may arise naturally, even in one-world versions of quantum theory. We also query whether the motivations they give for their assumptions hold up well under their definition of "thoughtfulness" as displaying human-level cognitive ability, and suggest that their justification requires replacing "thoughtfulness" by "consciousness" or "conscious thoughtfulness".
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Kent, Adrian
Institutions: Perimeter Institute, University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4322716263