The Collapse Of The Wave Function Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Gribbin (1989: 231):

The jargon "collapse of the wave function" (which has a precise mathematical significance in quantum theory) is equivalent to saying that we can know where things are only when we are actually looking at them.  Blink and they are gone.  And the behaviour of the particles depends on whether or not we are looking.  If we watch the two holes to see electrons passing by, the electrons behave differently from the way they behave when we are not looking.  The observer is, in quantum physics, an integral part of the experiment, and what he or she chooses to watch plays a critical rôle in deciding what happens.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the "collapse of the wave function" is the construal of experience as an instance (particle) of potential (wave function); it is the instantiation of quantum potential as a particle.

We "know where things are" when we construe experience as things located in space.  When we blink, it is the construal of experience that ceases.  It is the construal of experience as particles that ceases when we are not looking.

It is the construal of experience that differs when particles are detected at the slits as well as at the detector screen behind the slits, because each is an instance of different quantum potential.

The observer is "an integral part of the experiment" in the sense that it is the observer who construes the experience as meaning.  "What happens" is what is construed as happening by the observer.  The "decision" is the decision between quantum potentials that will be instantiated when experience is construed in an observation.