Question: What is your preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics?

Oliver Brown answered on 8 Mar 2015:

So personally I like to stick with the Copenhagen interpretation, which is the closest we have to an ‘official’ interpretation of QM.

It’s a complex issue, but the key point for me is that the Copenhagen interpretation says that a quantum system is probabilistic, so we begin by describing all possible states of the system, and then narrow it down by making measurements.

Famously this is not a thing quantum physicists are able to agree on, there are now several published papers presenting the results of informal surveys at conferences on people’s favourite interpretation, and there’s rarely a clear winner!

To be honest, as a PhD student, while it’s interesting to think about the interpretation of fundamental quantum mechanics, I tend to be more focused on actually getting results! Pondering the philosophical implications of the theory’s I work with is somewhat above my pay-grade.

In the immortal words of David Mermin, “Shut up and calculate!”