The Church of the Smaller Hilbert Space
This is supposed to be a balanced blog, but my nonexistent readership may wish to know exactly what I do believe about quantum mechanics. The document below explains everything.
WARNING: The document below contains geek humor that also parodies the style of a certain well-known religious text. If you don’t find jokes about density operators funny and/or you are a devout religious person then you may find its contents offensive. The document below does not necessarily represent the opinions of its author, or indeed any person, animal, alien or sentient artificial intelligence, living, dead or yet to be born.
Ten Commandments of the Church of the Smaller Hilbert Space
Update: The link is now working. Apologies for the delay.
Explore posts in the same categories: humor
Quantum Quandaries 
17th April 2006 at 3:10 pm
I was envious of my neighbours maximally mixed state! What actions can I take to purify myself?
17th April 2006 at 5:51 pm
Hmm, this is a funny case because most people are envious of pure states. I suggest you forget everything you know about it and that should remedy the situation.
18th April 2006 at 11:09 am
[…] Quantum Quandries has founded a new church: The Church of the Smaller Hilbert Space. Humor that appeals directly to quantum physicists: priceless. I am greatly looking forward to the theological debate between members of the Church of the Larger Hilbert Space and Church of the Smaller Hilbert Space. And can we look forward to the Church of the Infinite Hilbert Space, or the Church of the Empty Hilbert Space (that last one feels a little Zen, doesn’t it?) And why aren’t their any Churches for Banach Spaces? Members of all Hilbert Space Churches would be welcome, of course. […]
10th May 2006 at 11:05 am
Dave, if you incline toward Zen, try the Church of the Compact Banach Space. An entire mathematics book was once written on the subject…
20th November 2006 at 7:48 am
[…] Firstly, Andrew Steane has a new paper entitled “Context, spacetime loops, and the interpretation of quantum mechanics”, which was written for the Ghirardi festschrift. Steane is best known for his work on quantum error correction, fault tolerance and ion trap quantum computing, which may not engender a lot of confidence in his foundational speculations. However, the abstract looks interesting and the final sentence: “A single universe undergoing non-unitary evolution is a viable interpretation.” would seem to fit with my “Church of the smaller Hilbert space” point of view. Steane has also addressed foundational issues before in his paper “A quantum computer only needs one universe”, and I like the title even if I am not familiar with the contents. Both of these are on my reading list, so expect further comments in the coming weeks. […]
22nd August 2009 at 9:49 am
[…] undergoing non-unitary evolution is a viable interpretation.” would seem to fit with my “Church of the smaller Hilbert space” point of view. Steane has also addressed foundational issues before in his paper “A quantum […]