Quantum Theory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [15]

Gribbin (1989: 232):

If we carry out an experiment designed to prod the atom (perhaps by bombarding it with photons, as in the photoelectric experiment), one or more of the electron wave functions may be modified in such a way that there is a high probability that we will detect an electron outside the atom, as if a little particle had been ejected.  But the only realities are what we observe; everything else is conjecture, hypothetical models we construct in our minds and with our equations to enable us to develop a picture of what is going on.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, modifying electron wave functions is modifying electron potential, and, because potential is quantified as probability, it is modifying the system probabilities, and hence, the statistical distribution of instance (particle) frequencies.

The "only realities" are meanings that we construe of experience, consistently or otherwise.  What we observe are construals of experience as instances of potential.  Hypothetical models and equations are construals of experience as potential — as systems whose instances are 'what is going on'.