Quantum Theory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [13]

Gribbin (1990: 201-2):

According to our best theories of particle behaviour, the vacuum is a seething mass of virtual particles in its own right, even when there are no "real" particles present.  And this is not idle tinkering with the equations, for without allowing for the effect of these vacuum fluctuations we simply do not get the right answers to problems involving scattering of particles by one another.  This is powerful evidence that the theory — based directly on the uncertainty relations, remember — is correct.  The virtual particles and vacuum fluctuations are as real as the rest of quantum theory — as real as wave/particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and action at a distance.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the "seething mass of virtual particles" is a construal of experience as quantum physical potential, whereas the "real particles" are actual instantiations of that quantum physical potential.  'Virtual' and 'real' are both construals of experience as meaning.