[geocentrism] Re: Question begging
- From: Martin Selbrede <mselbrede@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:14:37 -0500
On Mar 22, 2007, at 10:43 PM, Robert Bennett wrote:
….In passing, I note that "In mathematics, probabilities always lie
between zero and one." (Emphasis added).
Actually, Robert didn't write that, he's quoting Paul Deema, so let's
straighten THAT out first!
Second, you might be surprised to know that this is not universally
held to be true!
"Really?" you might ask me. "Who, pray tell, would seriously
entertain a probability that does not fall between zero and one
inclusive? Surely some crackpot, right?"
And you'd be wrong.
For the Festschrift for Jean-Pierre Vigier, noted physicist and Nobel
laureate Richard Feynman wrote an essay entitled "Negative
Probability," where he does, in fact, defend as a quantum mechanical
necessity the need for negative probabilities to exist.
It turns out that the constraint in quantum mechanics is merely that
the sum of all the possible outcomes equals 1. So, you can have a
probability of 1.5 and -0.5 for an event, and the quantum mechanical
considerations will work out correctly. (This is another reason why
I regard quantum mechanics as the physical equivalent of dividing by
zero -- you can get any result you want, including mounting the well-
known proof that 1 = 2.)
So, it is interesting that Feynman even contributed to the
Festschrift, insofar as Feynman likes the Copenhagen Interpretation
of Quantum Mechanics while Vigier spent his career defending the de
Broglie-Bohm-Vigier approach to QM (the stochastic causal
interpretation that points to a deterministic classical subquantum
domain). But the reason he contributed is clear when you read his
essay -- he knows that Vigier has a point that conventional QM leads
to negative probabilities, so Feynman feels he's under compulsion to
defend that concept. And so it goes.
In other words, there's no statement, be it ever so harmonious with
mathematics, logic, and common sense, that a highly regarded Nobel
laureate can't be found who will gladly trash it for all it's worth.
Including the idea that probabilities ALWAYS lie between zero and
one. You think like THAT, and you'll NEVER get a Nobel prize!
Martin
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