Building the Observer into the System: Toward a Realistic Description of Human Interaction with the World

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new framework where the observer is embedded within the system, challenging traditional external perspectives and demonstrating that quantum formalism is necessary for representing classical information in such contexts.

Contribution

It introduces a black box model coupling the observer with the system, deriving classical analogs of quantum no-go theorems, and emphasizes the necessity of quantum superposition for classical information representation.

Findings

Quantum formalism is required for classical information representation.

Embedded observer framework challenges traditional external perspectives.

Classical analogs of quantum no-go theorems are derived.

Abstract

Human beings do not observe the world from the outside, but rather are fully embedded in it. The sciences, however, often give the observer both a "god's eye" perspective and substantial a~priori knowledge. Motivated by W. Ross Ashby's statement, "the theory of the Black Box is merely the theory of real objects or systems, when close attention is given to the question, relating object and observer, about what information comes from the object, and how it is obtained" (Introduction to Cybernetics, 1956, p. 110), I develop here an alternate picture of the world as a black box to which the observer is coupled. Within this framework I prove purely-classical analogs of the "no-go" theorems of quantum theory. Focussing on the question of identifying macroscopic objects, such as laboratory apparatus or even other observers, I show that the standard quantum formalism of superposition is required to adequately represent the classical information that an observer can obtain. I relate these results to supporting considerations from evolutionary biology, cognitive and developmental psychology, and artificial intelligence.