The Pondicherry interpretation of quantum mechanics: An overview

Abstract

An overview of the Pondicherry interpretation of quantum mechanics is presented. This interpretation proceeds from the recognition that the fundamental theoretical framework of physics is a probability algorithm, which serves to describe an objective fuzziness (the literal meaning of Heisenberg’s term ‘Unschärfe’, usually mistranslated as ‘uncertainty’) by assigning objective probabilities to the possible outcomes of unperformed measurements. Although it rejects attempts to construe quantum states as evolving ontological states, it arrives at an objective description of the quantum world that owes nothing to observers or the goings-on in physics laboratories. In fact, unless such attempts are rejected, quantum theory’s true ontological implications cannot be seen. Among these are the radically relational nature of space, the numerical identity of the corresponding relata, the incomplete spatio-temporal differentiation of the physical world, and the consequent top-down structure of reality, which defies attempts to model it from the bottom up, whether on the basis of an intrinsically differentiated space-time manifold or out of a multitude of individual building blocks.