X-Message-Number: 11235
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1999 20:15:49 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #11224, one further thought

Yes, the quantum state does encode postional
information. (One reference is Penrose, *The
Emperor's New Mind*, pp. 243ff.) So, when Tipler
says that two similar gas molecules in the ground state are 
in "the same quantum state" it seems clear he means 
"the same up to change of coordinates." The "change" 
could involve changes in location (both in time and space),
orientation, and even velocity, if by a constant amount, 
so long as one object looks the same, from one inertial 
frame of reference, as the other one looks from another. 
The laws of physics are invariant under such changes, 
and Tipler is claiming that two objects really are one 
and the same if that is the only way they differ.

Mike Perry  

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