Thursday 29 June 2017

Quantum Entanglement Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [1]

Gribbin (1990: 217-8):
So what happens when we try to measure the spin of one of two separating particles?  Considered in isolation, each particle can be thought of as undergoing random fluctuations in its spin components that will confuse any attempt to measure the total spin of either particle.  But taken together, the two particles must have exactly equal and opposite spin.  So the random fluctuations in spin of one particle must be matched by balancing, equal, and opposite "random" fluctuations in the spin components of the other particle, far away.  As in the original EPR argument, the particles are connected by action at a distance.  Einstein regarded this "ghostly" nonlocality as absurd, implying a flaw in quantum theory.  John Bell showed how experiments could be set up to measure this ghostly nonlocality and prove quantum theory correct.


Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, each measurement of particle spin is a construal of experience as an instance of potential meaning.  Each random fluctuation in spin is a distinct instance, in line with the probability of the system potential of which it is an instance.  In the case of quantum entanglement, the two particles are instances of the same system.  Consequently, there is no "action at a distance" and no "ghostly nonlocality".

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