About the social construction of quantum mechanics

Jane Cronin

Miriam Lipschütz-Yevick

Karl Svozil, Ron Wright

Ron Wright

Tony Lawson

Abstract Social positioning theory, or an account of the human individual that it grounds, qualifies as a quantum social theory. This is an assessment that I explain and defend in the paper. It is of interest in that, in a world where increasing numbers are seeking to construct quantum social theories, it serves to help demonstrate that this goal can be achieved without giving up on meeting criteria like explanatory intelligibility or power or discarding real‐world notions like human (and other) entities. As it turns out, a central feature of the account defended and a core element of the ‘standard’ interpretation of quantum mechanics are found to stand in an interesting, unanticipated and suggestive relation to each other.

申 赵

The measurement problem in quantum mechanics has, since its inception, given rise to enduring debates concerning the role of the observer and the nature of physical reality. Although the von Neumann–Wigner hypothesis that consciousness causes collapse has been marginalized within mainstream physics because of its unfalsifiability, the core proposition to which this hypothesis points—namely, the correlation between the observer’s informational state and the system’s evolutionary trajectory—may acquire entirely new theoretical significance in complex macroscopic systems, especially human social systems. This article proposes and systematically constructs Coherent Social Phase Transition Theory (CSPT), aiming to demonstrate that, under normal conditions, human social systems reside in a metastable state described by self-organized criticality (SOC). A low-entropy coherent information field generated by individual consciousness and not decohered by the macroscopic environment can serve as a seed for symmetry breaking and, through a nonlinear cascade amplification mechanism, can significantly influence the final collapse direction of the macroscopic social probability cloud at all scales of human society—from self-regulation to global narratives. The core contributions of this article are as follows: (1) Starting from information thermodynamics, we argue that “strong intention” is physically equivalent to localized low-entropy coherent information and quantify it in terms of coherence time T2 and coherence purity C. (2) By introducing self-organized criticality theory, we demonstrate that the normal state of human society is a critical state with variable correlation length, endowed with a nonlinear capacity to amplify weak ordered signals, and further propose that this correlation length is defined by the “cognitive boundary” within the thinker’s mind. (3) We construct a four-stage dynamical model (coherent latching → weak-coupling injection → critical cascade amplification → path locking) that provides a complete physical picture of the transition from individual inner intention to macroscopic social reality. (4) We propose a preliminary Landau–Ginzburg-type mathematical formalization and derive a quantitative expression for the efficacy of intentional influence. (5) We design a reproducible social-field double-blind experimental protocol to ensure the falsifiability of the theory. This article maintains that CSPT is not an extension of quantum mechanics but rather an analogical transfer of the concepts of coherence and decoherence from quantum information theory to macroscopic social scales. The theory provides an operational, testable, and physically consistent research pathway for discussions of the relationship between consciousness and macroscopic reality, and we recommend positioning it within the emerging interdisciplinary field of “quantum social science.”