> And even then, you are simply getting a measurement of a thing.
This is exactly where the Many World Interpretation and the Copenhagen Interpretation diverges.
If you send a proton with enough violence through the core of a lead atom, for instance, any given observer will see patterns that tend to be interpreted as interactions between nuclei (or quarks, depending on the situation). We can draw Feynmann diagrams for this and even some calculations.
For other particles, such as electron-electron interactions, these can even be quite clean and give the impression that the particle has a certain location at the time of interaction.
While your objection can still be made in this case, it's much weaker. Physicists tend to consider cases like these as an observation of an individual particle. (If they ignore the MWI).
Within the MWI, though, the assumption is that every possible interaction all occur at once. It's just that usually the outcomes are not mutually coherent. And when so, later interactions between the different paths the wavefunction is taking cannot interact with eachother.
In this case, your objection becomes true at a much deeper level.
In any case, we simply do not yet KNOW what exists at the deepest level. All we have is guesses.
You do a great job explaining these concepts, better than most. I have appreciated all of your replies in this post. Do you have a blog or podcast or teach somewhere? I would tune in.
This is exactly where the Many World Interpretation and the Copenhagen Interpretation diverges.
If you send a proton with enough violence through the core of a lead atom, for instance, any given observer will see patterns that tend to be interpreted as interactions between nuclei (or quarks, depending on the situation). We can draw Feynmann diagrams for this and even some calculations.
For other particles, such as electron-electron interactions, these can even be quite clean and give the impression that the particle has a certain location at the time of interaction.
While your objection can still be made in this case, it's much weaker. Physicists tend to consider cases like these as an observation of an individual particle. (If they ignore the MWI).
Within the MWI, though, the assumption is that every possible interaction all occur at once. It's just that usually the outcomes are not mutually coherent. And when so, later interactions between the different paths the wavefunction is taking cannot interact with eachother.
In this case, your objection becomes true at a much deeper level.
In any case, we simply do not yet KNOW what exists at the deepest level. All we have is guesses.