Speakable and Unspeakable, Past and Future

Abstract

This chapter is based on a talk given at the Science and Ultimate Reality meeting in March, 2002, in honour of John Archibald Wheeler. In it, I discuss some questions related to what can and cannot be said about the history of a quantum mechanical system. Relying heavily on the weak- measurement formalism of Aharonov and coworkers, I argue that there is much to be learned about a system based both on its preparation and on subsequent postselection. This is illustrated with examples from a number of past, present, and future experiments from our lab, ranging from tests of quantum "paradoxes" to studies of nonlocality to non-deterministic implementations of logic operations on quantum information. The connection between weak measurements and generalized probability theory is discussed, along with some of the counterintuitive features of these "probabilities." Conclusions are for the most part left to the reader.