Quantum Physics Through Systemic Functional Linguistics: Causality

Gribbin (1990: 66):

In the classical world, everything has its cause. … But in the world of the quantum, such direct causality begins to disappear as soon as we look at radioactive and atomic transitions. An electron doesn't move down from one energy level to another at particular time for any particular reason. The lower energy level is more desirable for the atom, in a statistical sense, and so it is quite likely (the amount of likelihood can even be quantified) that the electron will make such a move, sooner or later. But there is no way to tell when the transition will occur. No outside agency pushes the electron, and no internal clockwork times the jump. It just happens, for no particular reason, now rather than then. … It really does seem that these changes occur entirely by chance, on a statistical basis, and that already begins to raise fundamental philosophical questions.

Blogger Comment:

Systemic Functional Linguistic theory distinguishes between self-engendered processes and those with an external cause (agent). In the 'world of the quantum', electrons are construed as the medium of self-engendered processes — processes that can be viewed from the complementary perspectives of 'happening' (material) vs 'being' (relational).