In 1964, Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz introduced their well-known ABL rule with the intention of providing a time-symmetric formalism for computing novel kinds of conditional probabilities in quantum theory. Later papers attached additional significance to the ABL rule, including assertions that it supported violations of the uncertainty principle. The present work challenges these claims, as well as subsequent attempts to salvage the original interpretation of the ABL rule. Taking a broader view, this paper identifies a subtle category error at the heart of the ABL rule that consists of confusing observables that belong to a single system with emergent observables that arise only for physical ensembles. Along the way, this paper points out other problems and fallacious reasoning in the research literature surrounding the ABL rule, including the misuse of post-selection, a reliance on pattern matching to classical formulas, and a posture of measurementism that takes experimental data as providing answers to interpretational questions.

翻译：1964年，Aharonov、Bergmann和Lebowitz提出了著名的ABL规则，旨在为量子理论中新型条件概率的计算提供一种时间对称的形式体系。后续研究赋予ABL规则更多意义，包括声称其支持不确定性原理的违反。本文对这些主张以及后来试图挽救ABL规则原始解释的尝试提出质疑。从更广阔的视角出发，本文指出ABL规则核心存在一个微妙的范畴错误：将属于单个系统的可观测量与仅出现在物理系综中涌现的可观测量相混淆。在此过程中，本文还指出了围绕ABL规则的研究文献中存在的其他问题与谬误推理，包括对后选择的误用、对经典公式模式匹配的依赖，以及将实验数据视为解释性问题答案的测量主义立场。