IS QUANTUM THEORY UNIVERSALLY VALID

Quantum theory has been criticized for not being deterministic and therefore not universal: it cannot completely describe a measurement aimed at verifying its predictions (although any given apparatus can be considered as a quantum system). We investigate the possible alternatives. Theories where the observed world is deterministic but the observer is not (whatever the reason for that) lead to Bell’s nonseparability theorem. If, on the other hand, the observer too is deterministic, the theory is not verifiable. It follows that quantum theory must be the logically preferred option. Its inability to completely describe the measurement process appears to be not a flaw of the theory but a logical necessity which is analogous to Godel’s undecidability theorem.