Superposed Perception States Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 807, 808):

I wish to make clear that, as it stands, this [the 'many worlds' interpretation] is far from a resolution of the cat paradox. For there is nothing in the formalism of quantum mechanics that demands that a state of consciousness cannot involve the simultaneous perception of a live and a dead cat. … 

Why do we not permit these superposed perception states? Until we know exactly what it is about a quantum state that allows it to be considered as a ‘perception’, and consequently see that such superpositions are ‘not allowed’, we have really got nowhere in explaining why the real world of our experiences cannot involve superpositions of live and dead cats.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the superposition of live cat and dead cat is not a superposition of perception states, but a superposition of potential "perception states" (construals of experience as meaning). Perception involves the instantiation of one of these two potential meanings.