Nonlocality: When Meaning Refuses to Stay Put
Quantum nonlocality is one of the most disorienting features of the quantum world. Particles separated by vast distances appear to “know” what’s happening to one another instantly. This phenomenon, confirmed in countless Bell-type experiments, defies the classical expectation that interactions must be local—confined to a specific place and time.
But what does nonlocality mean in a relational cosmos, where reality is instantiated only through the construals of a meaner?
Let’s look more closely.
The Traditional View: Spooky Action at a Distance
In the standard framing:
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Two particles become entangled.
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They are separated, sometimes by light-years.
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A measurement made on one instantaneously determines the outcome of the other.
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This correlation is stronger than any classical explanation allows.
Einstein famously derided this as spukhafte Fernwirkung—spooky action at a distance. But later experiments left no doubt: reality violates Bell inequalities. The universe is nonlocal.
The question is—what kind of reality are we talking about?
Nonlocality as Relational Constraint
From our perspective, this is not spooky—it’s relational.
Entanglement does not imply that one particle affects another across space. It means that their meaning potential is interdependent. The outcome of one measurement constrains the possible construals of the other—not because one influences the other, but because they are jointly instantiated through a single act of meaning-making.
Nonlocality is not a signal flying faster than light. It is a non-separability of meaning—a refusal of the cosmos to be broken into independently instantiated parts.
The Collapse Is Not in Space
If meaning is instantiated through observation, and if space is itself an instance of relational structure, then the idea of “distant” particles is already suspect.
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Where is the collapse?
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When does it happen?
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Which particle does it affect first?
These questions assume an observer-independent spacetime in which particles reside. But in our model, space is not the stage—it's the shape of instantiation.
The “distance” between entangled particles is a relation within a potential field—not a separation between independent things. When a meaner construes an outcome, the whole relational structure is instantiated as a single, indivisible meaning instance.
Meaning Is Nonlocal
Meaning, in a semiotic universe, is not constrained by geometry. A poem read on Earth can instantiate feelings that echo the thoughts of a writer long dead. A photon measured on the Moon can instantiate an outcome entangled with one on Mars.
Nonlocality, then, is not an anomaly. It is a feature of a cosmos where relations are prior to objects, and meaning is instantiated as wholes, not parts.
This also reframes the famous puzzle:
“How does the particle on the left know what happened to the particle on the right?”
It doesn’t. There are no separate particles. There is only a relational meaning instance that includes both.
Closing Reflection
Quantum nonlocality is not spooky. It’s poetic.
It reminds us that in a relational cosmos, separation is a story told by instantiation. The universe is not a container of parts, but a weaver of patterns—entangled, enfolded, and awaiting meaning.
And so, the next time we speak of nonlocality, let us not ask how one thing affects another far away. Let us ask instead:
What kind of cosmos gives rise to meaning that spans the illusion of space?
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