7 - Letters to Doug Bilodeau

Summary

22 August 1999, “Your Article”

I am writing to let you know that I enjoyed your article quant-ph/9812050, “Why Quantum Mechanics is Hard to Understand,” very much. I was in particular very pleased with your Section IV “Dynamics vs. History.” It may interest you to know that Markus Fierz expressed a similar point of view in his article: “Does a physical theory comprehend an ‘objective, real, single process’?” in Observation and Interpretation in the Philosophy of Physics, edited by S. Körner (Dover, NY, 1957), pp. 93–96. I will append the full text below for your enjoyment. [See note to Rüdiger Schack, dated 29 August 1999.]

Most importantly, I would like to ask you for the final coordinates of your paper. Was it published somewhere? I would like to cite it in an upcoming paper.

28 August 1999, “Not Much”

I don't have a good idea about where to send your paper. I think chances are that AJP will be tougher than FP. In any case, it had an impact on me. My old advisor used to say of our joint papers, “If three people read this paper, we'll be doing OK!” If you know of two others with yours, you're probably doing OK.

I like this focus on the concept of “object.” I look forward to anything you might have to say about it. I have some slides that I use as a rallying cry to the idea that quantum information theory may have some impact on quantum foundations. The first is a list of axioms for quantum mechanics.