Quantum Darwinism is a theory claiming to explain the emergence of the classical world from the quantum world as due to a process of Darwinian natural selection; where the many possible quantum states are selected against in favor of a stable pointer state. It was proposed in 2003 by Wojciech Zurek and a group of collaborators including Ollivier, Poulin, Paz and Blume-Kohout. The development of the theory is due to the integration of a number of Zurek’s research topics pursued over the course of twenty-five years including: pointer states, einselection and decoherence. — Wikipedia
Vern S. Poythress - Semiotic analysis of the observer in relativity, quantum mechanics, and a possible theory of everything
http://frame-poythress.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PoythressVernSemioticAnalysisOfTheObserver.pdf
In the field of Physics emphasis in the Peircean semiotic categories has been attempted in different ways. There are three modes of being, the three phenomenological categories of C. S. Pierce:
1. Firstness = the potential.
2. Secondness = the actual.
3. Thirdness = the general.
In Peirce's philosophy these categories are very broad concepts with applications in metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, and general semiotic. In Classical Mechanics only Secondness occurs: There is no spontaneity (Firstness) and no irreversible tendencies to seek equilibrium in various types of attractors (Thirdness), only specific states leading to specific trajectories through the state space.
In Thermodynamics both other categories enter the scene: Thirdness by the irreversible tendency of the systems to end in an equilibrium state, determined by the boundary conditions, where all features of the initial state have been wiped out by internal friction. Firstness is reflected in thermodynamics by the spontaneous random fluctuations around the mean behavior, conditioned by the temperature and the frictional forces.
The Firstness category is the most difficult to grasp, because when we try to exemplify it by specific examples and general types we are already introducing Secondness and Thirdness. However, Firstness has made a remarkable entry into Quantum Mechanics through the concept of the wave function as describing the state of a system. The properties of a system that are inherent in its wave function are only potential, not actual. An electron has no definite position or momentum; these properties only become actualized in the context of specific types of apparatus and acts of measurement.
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