19. The EPR experiment
Quantum mechanics is not a theory about reality, it is a prescription for making the best possible predictions about the future if we have certain information about the past.
— Gerard 't Hooft
We can now see the EPR [21] gedanken experiment in a new light. What happens when measurements are made cannot be separated by mere distance. Certain effects cannot be attenuated by distance. Of course everyone already knows that. What is new is that the mystery of quantum mechanics may be explainable as the consequence of a simple common sense, mechanistic, deterministic and local model! This implies a very funny exception to the laws of quantum mechanics. If we could construct not only our experimental apparatus, but if we could actually bring into being the entire space containing the apparatus - de novo - and if we could conduct our experiment before the system could evolve into a consistent state (which would happen at the speed of light), then we would get a result which would disagree with Q M. Of course, such experiments are not easy to do in this world! On the other hand, certain effects may depend on the fact that some part of an apparatus exist in another part's future light cone. This would mean that experiments that are set up to alter the future might give different results in the present than experiments that leave the future alone.
[21] A. Einstein, B. Podolsky and N. Rosen, Phys. Rev. 47 (1935) 777.
