dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaIs the end in sight for theoretical pseudophysics?
| Authors | Ulrich Mohrhoff |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0305095 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0305095 |
Abstract
The question of what ontological message (if any) is encoded in the formalism of contemporary physics is, to say the least, controversial. The reasons for this state of affairs are psychological and neurobiological. The processes by which the visual world is constructed by our minds, predispose us towards concepts of space, time, and substance that are inconsistent with the spatiotemporal and substantial aspects of the quantum world. In the first part of this chapter, the latter are extracted from the quantum formalism. The nature of a world that is fundamentally and irreducibly described by a probability algorithm is determined. The neurobiological processes responsible for the mismatch between our "natural" concepts of space, time, and substance and the corresponding aspects of the quantum world are discussed in the second part. These natural concepts give rise to pseudoproblems that foil our attempts to make ontological sense of quantum mechanics. If certain psychologically motivated but physically unwarranted assumptions are discarded (in particular our dogged insistence on obtruding upon the quantum world the intrinsically and completely differentiated spatiotemporal background of classical physics), we are in a position to see why our fundamental physical theory is a probability algorithm, and to solve the remaining interpretational problems.
{
"annotation_id": "8e25199d-3282-4913-8618-b4817270783d",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:59.817000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:59.817000Z",
"file_hash": "c6dd23e716c19ced6dda3254f108ddad3c036447b474d94cc1a195888b2b67e5",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "The question of what ontological message (if any) is encoded in the formalism\nof contemporary physics is, to say the least, controversial. The reasons for\nthis state of affairs are psychological and neurobiological. The processes by\nwhich the visual world is constructed by our minds, predispose us towards\nconcepts of space, time, and substance that are inconsistent with the\nspatiotemporal and substantial aspects of the quantum world. In the first part\nof this chapter, the latter are extracted from the quantum formalism. The\nnature of a world that is fundamentally and irreducibly described by a\nprobability algorithm is determined. The neurobiological processes responsible\nfor the mismatch between our \"natural\" concepts of space, time, and substance\nand the corresponding aspects of the quantum world are discussed in the second\npart. These natural concepts give rise to pseudoproblems that foil our attempts\nto make ontological sense of quantum mechanics. If certain psychologically\nmotivated but physically unwarranted assumptions are discarded (in particular\nour dogged insistence on obtruding upon the quantum world the intrinsically and\ncompletely differentiated spatiotemporal background of classical physics), we\nare in a position to see why our fundamental physical theory is a probability\nalgorithm, and to solve the remaining interpretational problems.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0305095",
"authors": [
"Ulrich Mohrhoff"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Is the end in sight for theoretical pseudophysics?",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0305095"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "40f8b9ab-ce8e-42c5-be8e-c01119ac51fc",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}