'Bad Habits' in Quantum Mechanics

摘要

There are two common "bad habits" in the description, analysis, interpretation and teaching of fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics. One is the all too casual use of the term "information", without making it explicitly clear which of the various types, Shannon, algorithmic or pragmatic, are meant. The other concerns the use of the term "knowledge", without alluding to specific aspects of human brain function, for instance, when the observer selects the system under study, formulates simplified models, asks theoretical questions, plans an experiment, decides what to measure, prepares the system, chooses initial conditions, anticipates to obtain certain results and confirms a final state. I will show how an objective definition of information and recent results about information processing in the brain help overcome the most common counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics. In particular, I will discuss entanglement, teleportation, non-interaction measurements and decoherence in the light of the fact that the concept of pragmatic information, the one our brain handles, can only be defined in the macroscopic domain. Counterintuitive aspects arise when we construct mental images of quantum systems in which the concept of pragmatic information is illegitimately forced into the quantum domain.