QBism and the Ithaca Desiderata

Abstract

In 1996, N. David Mermin proposed a set of desiderata for an understanding of quantum mechanics, the "Ithaca Interpretation". In 2012, Mermin became a public advocate of QBism, an interpretation due to Christopher Fuchs and Rüdiger Schack.Here, we evaluate QBism with respect to the Ithaca Interpretation's six desiderata, in the process also evaluating those desiderata themselves. This analysis reveals a genuine distinction between QBism and the IIQM, but also a natural progression from one to the other.

Quantum Theory as Symmetry Broken by Vitality

“…I have elsewhere devoted an excessive number of words to setting QBism in its historical context [88][89][90]. In this essay, I have tried to be more forward-looking, though this has involved bringing up old things to make them part of the new.…”