Apparent Retrocausation as a Consequence of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics Refined to Accommodate the Principle of Sufficient Reason

TL;DR

This paper explores how the principle of sufficient reason can be integrated into quantum mechanics, suggesting that apparent retrocausality may emerge from biased quantum statistics when the reasons behind quantum responses are identifiable.

Contribution

It proposes a refined interpretation of quantum mechanics that accommodates the principle of sufficient reason, explaining how retrocausal effects could arise from biased quantum statistics.

Findings

Quantum statistics can be biased when reasons behind responses are known.

Biased quantum laws may produce apparent retrocausality.

Orthodox quantum mechanics can be consistent with a rational, reason-based universe.

Abstract

The principle of sufficient reason asserts that anything that happens does so for a reason: no definite state of affairs can come into being unless there is a sufficient reason why that particular thing should happen. This principle is usually attributed to Leibniz, although the first recorded Western philosopher to use it was Anaximander of Miletus. The demand that nature be rational, in the sense that it be compatible with the principle of sufficient reason, conflicts with a basic feature of contemporary orthodox physical theory, namely the notion that nature's response to the probing action of an observer is determined by pure chance, and hence on the basis of absolutely no reason at all. This appeal to pure chance can be deemed to have no rational fundamental place in reason-based Western science. It is argued here, on the basis of the other basic principles of quantum physics, that in a world that conforms to the principle of sufficient reason, the usual quantum statistical rules will naturally emerge at the pragmatic level, in cases where the reason behind Nature's choice of response is unknown, but that the usual statistics can become biased in an empirically manifest and apparently retrocausal way when the reason for the choice is empirically identifiable. It is shown here that if the statistical laws of quantum mechanics were to be biased in a certain plausible way then the basically forward-in-time unfolding of empirical reality described by orthodox quantum mechanics would generate the appearance of backward-time-causation of the kind that have been reported in the scientific literature.