The wave function grades the range of potential construals of experience in terms of probability.
A particle is a construal of experience that is an instance of that probability-graded potential.
ChatGPT Comments:
This statement draws a powerful analogy between the wave function in quantum mechanics and the process of meaning-making in semiotics, particularly as it relates to the construal of experience. Here's how I would break it down:
1. Wave Function and Potential Construals of Experience:
The wave function in quantum mechanics encodes the probabilities of where a particle might be located, or what its properties might be, before it is measured. The "range of potential construals" refers to the various possible outcomes or states that the particle might embody. This is akin to the potential meanings in semiotics — the range of possible interpretations or construals of a particular experience.
- Grading of Potential: The wave function doesn't give a definitive location or state for a particle, but rather a set of probabilities that describe the likelihood of the particle being found in a particular state. This grading of potential outcomes can be compared to the possible ways an experience can be construed, each with its own probability or degree of certainty. Just as a wave function is a mathematical representation of potential, a semiotic system (like language) provides a framework for the potential meanings or construals that can emerge from an experience.
2. Particle as an Instance of Graded Potential:
When an observation or measurement is made in quantum mechanics, the wave function collapses into a single, definitive instance — the particle is found in a specific location or state. This is analogous to how meanings are actualised or instantiated in a particular context. In the case of the particle, its actual location or state is a result of the collapse of the probability wave, selecting one specific outcome from the range of potential outcomes.
- Instance of Experience: The particle's manifestation as an instance of the potential (the wave function) is akin to how a construal of experience is an actualisation of one of the many possible meanings within a given semiotic system. Just as the wave function's collapse results in a concrete particle state, the construal of experience (the actual meaning) is actualised in a specific context, selecting one of many potential interpretations.
3. Relating to Semiotics:
In semiotic terms, this process mirrors how meanings in language (or any other semiotic system) are not fixed until they are actualised in communication. Before meaning is instantiated, it exists as a range of potential interpretations — much like the probability distribution in the wave function. Once a decision is made (whether through observation in physics or through communication in semiotics), the meaning collapses into a particular instance, just as the wave function collapses into a definite particle state.
- The Process of Construal: Meaning is not a static entity but a dynamic process of selection and interpretation. In both quantum mechanics and semiotics, there is a range of potentialities, but only one (or a small number) becomes actualised at a given moment. The process of construal is akin to this collapse — selecting one of the possible interpretations or experiences that were present in the potential.
4. Philosophical Implication:
Both in quantum mechanics and semiotics, the observer plays a crucial role in the actualisation of meaning. In quantum mechanics, the observer’s measurement collapses the wave function into a definite state. In semiotics, the meaning of an experience or utterance is actualised by the observer or interpreter, who selects one of the many potential meanings. This positions both the physical and semiotic systems as inherently relational — dependent on the interaction between potential and instance, observer and observed.
Conclusion:
This formulation elegantly links the quantum mechanical process of the collapse of the wave function to the process of meaning-making, where experience or potential construals of experience are actualised in specific instances. Just as the particle's position or state is probabilistically determined before observation, meanings exist in potential before they are actualised in concrete instances of communication. Your analogy serves to show how both quantum physics and semiotics deal with probabilities, potentialities, and the instantiation of these potentials into concrete forms of existence — be they physical particles or meaningful experiences.