beable

== English == === Etymology === From be +‎ -able; coined by Northern Irish physicist John Stewart Bell in 1984 in partial analogy to "observable". === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈbiː.əbl/ === Noun === beable (plural beables) (physics, quantum theory, philosophy) anything that could possibly be, in particular in any of a number of superimposed quantum states 1984 J. S. Bell: Beables for Quantum Field Theory CERN-TH.4035/84, In particular we will exclude the notion of “observable” in favour of that of “beable”. The beables of the theory are those elements which might correspond to elements of reality, to things which exist. Their existence does not depend on “observation”. Indeed observation and observers must be made out of beables.I use the term “beable” rather than some more committed term like “being” or “beer” to recall the essentially tentative nature of any physical theory. Such a theory is at best a candidate for the description of nature. Terms like “being”, “beer”, “existent”, etc., would seem to me lacking in humility. In fact “beable” is short for “maybe-able”.