Hidden variables?

Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 13:24:06 -0800
From: Rhett Savage <rhett@nonlocal.com>
Reply to: quantum-d@teleport.com
To: quantum-d@teleport.com
Subject: QUANTUM-D: Hidden variables?

In an early chapter of a beautiful little book called "How Is
Quantum Field Theory Possible?" by Sunny Auyang I found this 
question:

"Hidden variables offer one possible modification of quantum 
 mechanics. There is no proof that it is the only alternative. 
 Consider an analogous case. Eighteenth-century physicists, 
 working within the Newtonian framework, had represented 
 gravity by a numerical field and obtained the same result
 as Newton's action at a distance. The result does not imply
 that fields cannot possibly make a difference. We now know 
 that fields can be the continuous agent for gravity, but it
 would require the ten-component tensor field of general 
 relativity. There is no way to arrive at general relativity 
 by tinkering with Newtonian mechanics. Why should we assume
 a better theory can be obtained by tinkering with quantum 
 mechanics?" p. 25

How Is Quantum Field Theory Possible?
Sunny Auyang, Oxford University Press 1995