Lapsing Quickly into Fatalism: Bell on Backward Causation

Travis Norsen; Huw Price

doi:10.3390/e23020251

Lapsing Quickly into Fatalism: Bell on Backward Causation

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e23020251 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 251

Author(s):

Travis Norsen ◽

Huw Price

Keyword(s):

Quantum Theory ◽

Main Topic ◽

Huw Price ◽

Backward Causation

This is a dialogue between Huw Price and Travis Norsen, loosely inspired by a letter that Price received from J. S. Bell in 1988. The main topic of discussion is Bell’s views about retrocausal approaches to quantum theory and their relevance to contemporary issues.

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Is a time symmetric interpretation of quantum theory possible without retrocausality?

Proceedings of The Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspa.2016.0607 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 473 (2202) ◽

pp. 20160607 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Matthew S. Leifer ◽

Matthew F. Pusey

Keyword(s):

Quantum Theory ◽

Quantum State ◽

General Framework ◽

Bell Inequalities ◽

Time Symmetry ◽

Causality Criterion ◽

The Status ◽

Interpretation Of Quantum Theory ◽

Huw Price ◽

New Interpretation

Huw Price has proposed an argument that suggests a time symmetric ontology for quantum theory must necessarily be retrocausal, i.e. it must involve influences that travel backwards in time. One of Price's assumptions is that the quantum state is a state of reality. However, one of the reasons for exploring retrocausality is that it offers the potential for evading the consequences of no-go theorems, including recent proofs of the reality of the quantum state. Here, we show that this assumption can be replaced by a different assumption, called λ -mediation, that plausibly holds independently of the status of the quantum state. We also reformulate the other assumptions behind the argument to place them in a more general framework and pin down the notion of time symmetry involved more precisely. We show that our assumptions imply a timelike analogue of Bell's local causality criterion and, in doing so, give a new interpretation of timelike violations of Bell inequalities. Namely, they show the impossibility of a (non-retrocausal) time symmetric ontology.

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