CHAPTER EIGHT

Transactional and the Consistent Histories Interpretation

8.1  Transactional Interpretation

In Cramer's Transactional Interpretation  the wavefunction is taken to be an actual physical wave as opposed to a representation of the probability. When a quantum event takes place between two quantum objects (observed and the observer), an 'offer wave' of the state vector is sent out by the observed in all directions which does not carry any observable information   When this wave reaches the observer it sends back a 'confirmation wave' as echo.  The echo with the original wave produces a  standing wave in space-time. It is along this wave that momentum, energy, and other quantities that need to be conserved are transferred. This wave remains until the transaction is complete.   The wavefunction collapse only when the transaction is complete. Hence we have the name Transactional Interpretation.  In this interpretation, the objective reality is the result of interference of two waves producing a localization.  As long as the observer does not reflect the incoming phase wave, the event does not take place,

Here again the individual events are indeterminable. In the Transactional Interpretation the state vector is considered to be a real physical wave emitted as an "offer wave" based on the preparation procedure of the experiment.   The "confirmation wave" is also real so that a real standing wave is produce, which forms the guiding path.  We will never know the process until the transaction is complete.  When the transaction is over the input itself have changed and is totally collapsed beyond its original form to make any consistent deduction about it. As long as we are able to observe only what we know in history and our own present experience, we only know what is received and can in any reasonable level understand neither the offer wave nor the process of transaction in any given historic event.

 

8.2  Consistent Histories Interpretation

In the Consistent Histories Interpretation we have a similar situation because there the observed event again is a fundamental input in the sense that it determines the set of possible histories consistent with the observation made. There is no attempt to try to explain why a specific event happened except for the fact that it be consistent with the observed fact.  

Quantum mechanics makes predictions with respect to an ensemble of many individual events. These predictions are only to give the possible observed values of any situation. These occur as eigenvalues of the eigenfunction associated with the state. Which specific event in the diagonal density matrix of the system is observed in any experiment cannot be predicted by the mechanics. This leaves a lot a leeway for freedom of will. God has predetermined the possible outcomes of the event. But which one is the outcome is not predetermined in individual measurement. We are not able to explain why specific events happen. It is simply related somehow to the particular coordinate system in multispace. While there is a definite Cause-Effect relationship it is not deterministic.

 

 

 

So, Pauli, in one of his letters state,

"That which is physically unique cannot be separated from the observer anymore - and therefore falls through the net of physics. The individual case is occasion and not causa. I am inclined to see in this "occasio" - which includes the observer and his choice of the experimental setup and procedure, -”revenue" of the "anima mundi" (of course in "changed shape") that was pushed aside in the 17th century. La donna é mobile - also the anima mundi and the occasio."              
[Pauli Letter Collection, CERN, Geneva  9992.063, published in K. V. Laurikainen: Wolfgang Pauli and Philosophy. Gesnerus 41, (1984) 225-227.]

         

Wheeler[John Archibald Wheeler: Law without Law. In "Quantum Theory and Measurement", eds. J.A. Wheeler and W.H. Zurek, Princeton University Press, Princeton (1983) 182.] interprets this by assuming that the individual process in quantum mechanics as an elementary act of creation. If we translate this in soteriological terms it has tremendous implications. Every human decision is a creation ex-nihilo. This is probably what the statement "In the image of God, created He them " essentially mean. So a person is not making a decision but creating something totally new. We are involved along with God himself in creating the Universe we live in. We are co-creators with God. This is exactly why a discordant  act of hate on the part of Adam and Eve resulted in a world with thistles and thorns – a world sin and death. This is understandable because unless the conscience make a choice how can the event takes place in the external world.

 

The conscience itself is guided by the wave function, which contains all consciousness – the created and the creator - at all stages. The question of predetermination is totally out of question because the situation has never been. This is the new approach that only the present exists and not the future. Future is being created by personal involvement of consciousness. God himself has not created any future. He created the conscious beings that are also involved in the creation process. Thus every intelligent consciousness takes part in the evolving universe in a continuing process of creation. The quantum phenomenon comprises both the quantum system and the measuring device, Wheeler states that we as observers are free to decide in which way we will bring a quantum phenomenon to its close. We decide, by choosing the measuring device, which phenomenon can become reality and which one cannot? Wheeler explicates this by example of the well-known case of a quasar, of which we can see two pictures through the gravity lens action of a galaxy that lies between the quasar and ourselves. By choosing which instrument to use for observing the light coming from the quasar, we decide  whether the photons act as a wave to produce interference (from rays passing on both sides of the galaxy) or as particles (traveling at either side in trajectory). In both cases the individual process  contains an element that cannot be controlled. For example if we decide to measure the path of the photon - to let the path become reality - we have no influence on which of the two possible paths of the photon actually will be observed. 

 

This is the reason why the individual quantum phenomenon can be considered as an elementary act of creation. We as observers play a significant role in this process since we can decide by choosing the measuring device to define the quantum phenomenon as realized. Still, we cannot influence the specific value obtained through any such measurement and since we are part of the universe, the universe creates itself by observing itself through us. It is the image of God within us that produces this creative power.

Rom. 11:29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

 Yet it is not the kind of creation, which God made, but the reflection of it. Though we cannot completely control the measured value, we do contribute to the final outcome. We are part of the future not as a passive observer, but as an active involver. The nature of created reality is a process; a long, long series of events- or occasions- all of which are interdependent upon each other. It is not a bunch of material realities developed by the Creator.  It is a series of "concrescences," of "coming-into-existence," of which everything in the universe partakes.  We are cocreators with God.  Even when the whole cosmos was brought to chaos, God recreates a new universe out of chaos.  He has called and separated a people in order to bring about this change. Our lives profoundly affect other living and non-living.  In this complex web of interdependent processes, we have the options of choosing death or choosing life. 

We have seen that in classical and quantum physics, randomness and unpredictability are fundamental. I believe that these concepts are also found at the very heart of pure mathematics.

G. J. Chaitin

 

“I believe that the existence of the classical "path" can be pregnantly formulated as follows: The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it. “

--Heisenberg, in uncertainty principle paper, 1927

Deu 30:11  "For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

Deu 30:12  It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

Deu 30:13  Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

Deu 30:14  But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

Deu 30:15  "See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.

                                               therefore choose life.

 

http://www.npl.washington.edu/ti

Transactional and the Consistent Histories Interpretation [J.J. Halliwell, "A Review of the Decoherent Histories Approach of Quantum Mechanics" in "Fundamental Problems in Quantum Theory", ed. D.M. Greenberger, A. Zeilinger, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 755 (1995) 726.]