The de-Broglie–Bohm Approach Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 1032):

As far as I can make out, the only interpretations that do not necessarily depend upon some notion of ‘conscious observer’ are that of de-Broglie–Bohm that require some fundamental change in the rules of quantum mechanics, according to which U and R are both taken to be approximations to some kind of objectively real physical evolution.

As I have stated in many places in this book, I am an adherent of this last view, where it is with gravitational phenomena that an objective R (i.e. OR) takes over from U. This gravitational OR would take place spontaneously, and requires no conscious observer to be part of the process. In usual circumstances, there would be frequent manifestations of OR occurring all the time, and these would lead to a classical world emerging on a large scale, as an excellent approximation. Accordingly, there is no need to invoke any conscious observer in order to achieve the reduction of the quantum state (R) when a measurement takes place. 

On the other hand, I envisage that the phenomenon of consciousness — which I take to be a real physical process, arising ‘out there’ in the physical world — fundamentally makes use of the actual OR process. Thus, my own position is basically the reverse of those referred to above, in which, in one way or another, it is envisaged that consciousness is responsible for the R process. In my own view, it is a physically real R process that is (partly) responsible for consciousness!

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, the de-Broglie–Bohm 'pilot wave' interpretation of quantum mechanics posits two levels of reality:

a firmer ‘particle’ level of the reality of the configuration of the system, as well as a secondary ‘wave’ level of reality, defined by the wavefunction ψ, whose role is to guide the behaviour of the firmer level.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the 'wave' level identifies the range of potential construals of experience as meaning, and the 'particle' level constitutes an instance of those potential construals. From this perspective, both levels are intersubjectively real.

The 'taking over' of R from U — the collapse of the wavefunction — is the instantiation of potential when a conscious observer takes a measurement, and the wavefunction 'guides' the 'behaviour of the firmer level' in the sense that is delimits the range of potential that can be instantiated and grades it in terms of probability.

Consciousness, in this view, is mental and verbal symbolic processing, rather than a physical process, but it is realised by physical processes of the brain, the observation or thought of which is an instance of a construal of experience as meaning.