2012/12/08 by Adán Cabello, Cabello, Adan · 2 citations
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Origins and Evolution of Life #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1212.1756
openalex publication_date 2012/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I draw attention to the fact that three recently proposed physical principles, namely "local orthogonality", "global exclusive disjunction", and "compatible orthogonality" are not new principles, but different versions of a principle that Ernst Specker noticed long ago. I include a video of Specker stating this principle in 2009 in the following terms: "Do you know what, according to me, is the fundamental theorem of quantum mechanics? (...) That is, if you have several questions and you can answer any two of them, then you can also answer all of them". I overview some results that suggest that Specker's principle may be of fundamental importance for explaining quantum contextuality. Specker passed away in December 10, 2011, at the age of 91.