How Stands Collapse I

In this volume in honor of GianCarlo Ghirardi, I discuss my involvement with ideas of dynamical collapse of the state vector. 10 problems are introduced, 9 of which were seen following my initial work. 4 of these problems had a resolution in GianCarlo Ghirardi, Alberto Rimini and Tullio Weber’s Spontaneous Localization (SL) model (which added 1 more problem). This stimulated a (somewhat different) resolution of these 5 problems in the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model, in which I combined my initial work with SL. In an upcoming volume in honor of Abner Shimony I shall discuss the status of the 5 remaining post-CSL problems. 1 How I Got Into This. To be, or not to be: that is the question. The editors’ charge is to “... share with the widest possible community your views on quantum theory .... with the emphasis on conceptual developments, both those achieved and those hoped for,” and to give a “... personal assessment of the role of quantum theory in your work ... .” The word “role” brought to mind the role of Hamlet when, in Act III, Scene I, he delivers the lines quoted above. For, my professional life has mostly been devoted to going beyond standard quantum theory, which describes what might be, to construct a theory which separates what is to be from what is not to be, i.e., a quantum theory of reality. The personal and the professional are highly intertwined. Although the former is usually expunged from papers, I imagine it need not be so here[1]. Like most of us, my first encounter with quantum theory was in college, but for me it was a career-changing experience. I was in a cooperative program in electrical engineering, which involved alternately working at Bell labs and M.I.T. until I got two degrees and could, presumably, go out and earn a living. While I was at college, some of my best friends were physics majors, inclined toward theoretical physics. When their conversation touched quantum theory, I felt left out of some arcane, mysterious