Nonlocal character of quantum theory?

Abstract

In a recent article under the above title (but without the question mark) Henry Stapp presented arguments which lead him to conclude that under suitable conditions ``the truth of a statement that refers only to phenomena confined to an earlier time'' must ``depend on which measurement an experimenter freely chooses to perform at a later time.'' I point out that the reasoning leading to this conclusion relies on an essential ambiguity regarding the meaning of the expression ``statement that refers only to phenomena confined to an earlier time'' when such a statement contains counterfactual conditionals. As a result the argumentation does not justify the conclusion that there can be frames of reference in which future choices can affect present facts. But it does provide an instructive and interestingly different opportunity to illustrate a central point of Bohr's reply to Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen.