The Copenhagen Confusion
Despite all the popular media attention given to fantastical interpretations of quantum mechanics which invoke the existence of multiple, parallel universes, according to a survey published in 2016, the Copenhagen interpretation remains the most favoured.
What I found even more fascinating is that the 2016 survey, conducted by Sujeevan Sivasundaram and Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen at Aarhus University in Denmark, included questions which allowed them to go beyond this simple statement of preference and to assess what respondents thought they meant by the ‘Copenhagen interpretation’. The answers reveal a world of confusion, leading the authors to conclude: ‘However, when one regards the results of the survey, it shows that the resurgence the topic [quantum foundations] has been undergoing in recent times still has not had an impact on the participants being familiar with foundational concepts. This is seen from the answers to the questions concerning Bell’s inequality and the measurement problem, where a minority of the participants had a proper grasp of these topics’ (emphasis added).
Available on Jim Baggott’s Substack.
The Copenhagen Confusion – by Jim Baggott – Interpretations (substack.com)