J. Nonlocality: Special Issue on Psi and Nonlocal Mind, 2017 ISSN: 2167-6283 Quantum semiotics Stephen Jarosek E-mail:
[email protected] Submitted: November 22, 2016 …what we call matter is not completely dead, but is merely mind hidebound with habits. It still retains the element of diversification; and in that diversification there is life. Charles Sanders Peirce, CP 6.158 (1931-1966)1 It has become fashionable, these days, to incorporate the word quantum into a title, whenever someone wants to sell a book or an article, on topics ranging from home cooking to auto repair. Far from entertaining such indulgences, in quantum semiotics, we are interested in the question of whether the principles of consciousness might somehow be relevant to the realm of the very small. This relates to panpsychism. To some, panpsychism is also a four-letter word that carries its own baggage. We need to move past this, with humility, and certainly at least in the spirit of brainstorming. There is “something” going on that now has some of our most enquiring minds contemplating whether we are not in fact just players in a matrix illusion, a kind of computer simulation. We don’t need to resort to such conspiracy theories, just yet, but we do need to keep an open mind. The word quantum relates to discreteness as opposed to continuum. Matter is comprised of discrete atoms and molecules and subatomic particles… electrons occupy energy levels in atoms in discrete jumps… we have the wave-particle duality of discrete photons as packets of energy… and thus we have Planck’s constant that plays an integral part in the quantum narrative.