The Act Of Measurement Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Davies & Gribbin (1992: 218):

The Aspect experiment essentially lays to rest Einstein's hope that quantum uncertainty and indeterminism can be traced back to a substratum of hidden forces at work. We have to accept that there is an intrinsic, irreducible uncertainty in nature. An electron or other quantum particle generally does not have a well-defined position or motion unless an actual measurement of position or motion is made. The act of measurement causes the fuzziness to give way to a sharp and definite result. It is this combination of uncertainty and of the collapse of the quantum wave when an observation is made that leads to the paradox of the cat in the box.

 

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is not that 'an electron or other quantum particle generally does not have a well-defined position or motion unless an actual measurement of position or motion is made' but that these meanings are not construed unless a measurement is made.

By the same token, it is not that 'the act of measurement causes the fuzziness to give way to a sharp and definite result' but that the act of measurement — the collapse of the wave — is the instantiation of potential meaning as actual meaning.

In this view, Schrödinger's 'cat in the box' experiment presents no paradox, since it is not until the observation is made that potential meaning — either 'the cat is alive' or 'the cat is dead' — is instantiated as actual meaning .