The Collapse Of The Wave Function Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Davies & Gribbin (1992: 210):

The oddity of this abrupt resculpturing of the wave — often called "the collapse of the wave function" — is that it seems to depend upon the activities of the observer. If nobody looks, then the wave never collapses. So the behaviour of a particle such as an electron appears to vary according to whether it is being watched or not. This is deeply troubling to physicists, but may not seem of any great concern to other people — who else really cares what an electron is doing when we are not looking at it? But the issue goes beyond electrons. If macroscopic objects also have associated waves, then in principle the independent reality of everything seems to go into the quantum melting pot.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the reason why 'the collapse of the wave function seems to depend on the activities of the observer' is that the collapse of the wave function is the instantiation of potential in the construal of experience as meaning. Thus the reason why 'the wave never collapses if nobody looks' is that the meaning is not construed if nobody looks.

In this view, it is not that the behaviour of a particle varies according to whether it is being watched or not, but that the behaviour of a particle is only construed if it is watched.

In this view, all reality, including macroscopic objects, is meaning construed of experience.