Propensity fields are not like vague, indeterminate or smearedout particles, but are perfectly definite entities in their own right. If appropriate physical conditions arise for an unlocalized smearon, in a state fi, to interact in a probabilistic way with just one of many other highly localized smearons, then, roughly speaking, the probability that the unlocalized smearon interacts with the smearon LOcalized in dV is given by j fi j dV (this being a microrealistic reformulation of Borns original probabilistic interpretation of wave mechanics, which appealed explicitly to measurement). One feature of the present account of substances is that they are not necessarily located in small volumes of space, as, for example, the corpuscles or particles of classical physics would be. Herbert, in describing Heisenbergs ideas, imagines them to be more emphemeral than substantial: Heisenbergs half-real universe of potentia is reminiscent of certain oriental views developed in contexts far remov
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