quantum theory “is increasingly viewed as a theory of the process of observation itself”
Via quant-ph at arxiv.org, one may regularly see papers trying to derive quantum theory from some new axiomatic or philosophical basis. One class of such approaches focuses on epistemology. In my experience this falls into two types. Either the proposed new foundations involve a repackaging of some familiar quantum weirdness, such as the uncertainty principle; or, the proposed new foundations aren’t “weird” but also don’t actually give you quantum theory. (I believe the latter are motivated by the desire that quantum theory not be weird, i.e. not require reality to possess some strange new feature.)
I don’t see anything in the references of Fields et al 2021 which escapes this dichotomy, and the bland dictum that quantum theory is a “theory of the process of observation” definitely sounds like the second type of new foundation, that always fails for not being weird enough.
Via quant-ph at arxiv.org, one may regularly see papers trying to derive quantum theory from some new axiomatic or philosophical basis. One class of such approaches focuses on epistemology. In my experience this falls into two types. Either the proposed new foundations involve a repackaging of some familiar quantum weirdness, such as the uncertainty principle; or, the proposed new foundations aren’t “weird” but also don’t actually give you quantum theory. (I believe the latter are motivated by the desire that quantum theory not be weird, i.e. not require reality to possess some strange new feature.)
I don’t see anything in the references of Fields et al 2021 which escapes this dichotomy, and the bland dictum that quantum theory is a “theory of the process of observation” definitely sounds like the second type of new foundation, that always fails for not being weird enough.