🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov9.232752.24615@asl.dl.nec.com> terry@asl.dl.nec.com writes:

   >The kernel of Einstein's objections appeared to center around the curious
   >problem of a universe in which the timelines of all objects are not fully
   >determined, yet time itself is relative to the inertial frame of the user.

  You mentioned the biography by Pais, Subtle is the Lord: do you find
this particular objection mentioned in that book? I ask because I
don't recognize it myself. Pais, rather, emphasizes Einstein's realism.
By the way, to speak of "philosophical prejudices" is not to trivialize
Einstein's convictions in any way, but only to emphasize that they were
not theological.

   Here are some relevant passages from Pais:

   During the last twenty-five years of life, Einstein maintained that
   quantum mechanics was incomplete. He no longer believed that quantum
   mechanics was wrong but did believe that the common view of the physics
   community was wrong in ascribing to the postulates of quantum mechanics
   a degree of finality that he held to be naive and unjustified. ...

   It was in 1935 that Einstein stated his own desiderata for the first
   time in a precise form. This is the criterion of objective reality,
   to which he subscribed for the rest of his life. ...

   In contrast to the view [expressed by Bohr] that the concept of
   phenomenon *irrevocably* includes the specifics of the experimental
   conditions of observation, Einstein held that one should seek for
   a deeper-lying theoretical framework which permits the description
   of phenomena independently of these conditions. That is what he meant
   by the term *objective reality*. After 1933 it was his almost solitary
   position that quantum mechanics is logically consistent but that it
   is an incomplete manifestation of an underlying theory in which an
   objectively real description is possible. ...

     From this [1933] lecture as well as from discussions with him on the
   foundations of quantum physics, I have gained the following impression.
   Einstein tended to compare the successes of classical mechanics with
   those of quantum mechanics. In his view both were on a par, being
   successful but incomplete. For more than a decade, Einstein had
   pondered the single question of how to extend the invariance under
   uniform translations to general motions. His resulting theory,
   general relativity, had led to only small deviations from Newton's
   theory. (Instances where these deviations are large were discussed
   only much later.) He was likewise prepared for the survival of the
   practical successes of quantum mechanics, with perhaps only small
   modifications. He was also prepared to undertake his own search for
   objective reality, fearless of how long it would take. It is quite
   plausible that the very success of his highest achievement, general
   relativity, was an added spur to Einstein's apartness. Yet it should
   not be forgotten that this trait characterized his entire ouvre and
   style. ...