Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

412 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter “6x9”

a physical-organic-chemists-turned theoretical-cell biologist [25], that

took place on December 22, 2014, in connection with [biosemiotics:7807],

[email protected]. (The number of the figures and tables has been

changed from their original values in the email.)

G: ...Quantum mechanics is a perfect physical theory that describes

quite well the microworld. Also processes, in which local lost of uni-

tarity (reversibility) occurs (like during measurement), can be (thanks

to decoherence) framed in larger processes that are unitary and there-

fore described quite well by quantum mechanics. The worry comes

when we try to ground and interpret this theory.

S: The interpretation problem of QM seems to involve clarifying the

relation between QM and the fundamental reality (FR). There are at

least two possibilities in my opinion: (i) what quantum mechanics

describes is the fundamental reality itself; i.e., QM = FR, and (ii) quan-

tum mechanics is a sign referring to the fundamental reality which is

hence more than QM; i.e., QM < FR. Where does your interpretation

of QM stand with respect to these two possibilities, if any?

G: For the first aspect, we are doing substantial progresses in the latter

years and here quantum information plays the central role.

S: How do you define “quantum information”? Is it a subset of

Shannon information? How is it stored? How is it transferred? How is

transformed, if at all?

G: The latter aspect is much more unsatisfactory at the state of the art.

In my modest opinion, we need to put together:

1. Objectivism: The quantum formalism describes how the microworld is.


2. Realism: In experimental contexts (premeasurements), it makes sense to
   attribute reality to observables also in QM.


3. Phenomenism: Ultimately, the true objects that we can describe are
   those that we control (and observe). All the rest is inference.


4. Operationalism: our thread with quantum reality is represented by the
   operations that we perform in our lab when we manipulate them.
   The whole worry stems here from the fact that we have an uninter-
   preted ontological substrate that we cannot directly experience

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