Von Neumann And Wigner On The Collapse Of The Wave Function Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 214-5):

As von Neumann pointed out, the macroscopic measuring instrument is also described by a quantum mechanical wave function (practically speaking, we do not need quantum theory to describe such objects physically). He then formally showed that one cannot draw a line from the wave function of the particle all the way up to the act of the observer to establish the value of ψ at any scale. The "collapse of the wave function" is determined just when the apparatus and the particle interact to give a definite measurement. This collapse was attributed by Wigner to be the result of the intervention of the observer's consciousness. After all, the observer decides to set up the apparatus, decides whether he or she is interested in position or momentum, and actually makes the measurement! To determine the state of this apparatus in von Neumann's view, one apparatus needs another, and that one needs another one, and so on, regressing in an infinite fashion. In Wigner's scheme a phenomenon only becomes actual (that is, the regress is ended) when the observer becomes conscious of it.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, von Neumann's view on the collapse of the wave function is an attempt to understand it solely in terms of the material-relational domain of meaning, ignoring the mental-verbal domain of meaning that actually does the construing.

Wigner's view, on the other hand, takes into account both the material-relational domain of meaning (the arrangement of the apparatus) and the mental-verbal domain (the consciousness of the observer). 

Meaning of the material-relational domain only becomes actual (instantiated) when consciousness construes experience as that meaning.