Shut up and calculate!

[gusl]

Shut up and calculate!

Why do physicists care about interpretations of QM? Do differerent interpretations make different predictions? If so, shouldn't they then be called theories instead?

Comments

[spoonless.livejournal.com]

One more comment: while many physicists will no doubt disagree with me, I don't think I would call the "shut up and calculate" version of quantum mechanics a physical theory at all since it doesn't provide a model or description of the external world. MWI is a fully fledged theory whereas shut-up-and-calculate is, in some sense, only a phenomenology (a bunch of equations that gets the right answer for particular experiments which have been done so far but makes no attempt at explaining how or why it comes out right).