Of all the puzzles in quantum mechanics, the measurement problem might be the most notorious. Schrödinger’s cat, dead and alive, waits eternally in a sealed box, its fate unresolved until a measurement is made. But what is a measurement? Why does it matter? And why does it seem to bring the whole cosmos to a decision point?
In our relational cosmology, where reality is actualised through observation and meaning is instantiated by a meaner, the measurement problem looks less like a glitch—and more like a clue.
The Standard Dilemma
In traditional quantum mechanics:
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A system evolves deterministically according to the Schrödinger equation.
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Until measured, it exists in a superposition—a blend of all possible outcomes.
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Measurement causes the “collapse” of the wavefunction into a definite state.
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But no one knows how or why this collapse occurs, or what counts as a measurement.
The universe, it seems, is undecided—until we ask a question.
A Problem of Potential
From our point of view, the wavefunction is not a physical thing. It is a structured field of potential: the set of possibilities from which meaning might be instantiated. There is no mystery in the fact that multiple outcomes are possible—this is the definition of potential meaning.
The mystery only arises if we insist that the potential must be physically real before it is actualised. But in our model, reality is not “out there” waiting to be revealed. It is brought forth in the act of construal.
Measurement = Instantiation
What collapses the wavefunction? The meaner does.
Not through magic, but through meaning. A meaner construes experience, and in doing so, instantiates a meaning instance from potential. The “collapse” is not a physical event in space—it is a semiotic event in process.
In this view:
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There is no need for a mysterious dividing line between observer and system.
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There is no paradox in superposition. It is simply potential, unactualised.
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There is no ghostly collapse. There is only the actualisation of a meaning instance.
And What About the Cat?
In the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, the cat is both dead and alive until observed. But the real question is: by whom?
If the cat is a meaner, its own experience instantiates its reality. If not, it remains potential until a meaner construes it. The box doesn’t conceal a paradox—it houses potential meaning awaiting construal.
The cat isn’t dead and alive—it’s uninstantiated.
The Universe as a Question Answered
The measurement problem dissolves when we stop treating potential as a shadow of reality and start treating it as the structured field from which reality is drawn. The universe is not waiting to be observed—it becomes as it is observed.
Not in bits and pieces, but in meaning instances. Not by passive detectors, but by active meaners.
This doesn’t trivialise measurement—it deepens it. Measurement is no longer a mechanical tick of a device. It is a moment of cosmic participation, in which the universe steps into being through construal.
Closing Reflection
The so-called measurement problem arises when we try to force a potential cosmos to behave like an actual one. But in a relational ontology, the two are not in conflict. The wavefunction is not broken by observation—it is fulfilled.
So perhaps we should retire the term “measurement problem.” It’s not a problem. It’s a feature.
A reminder that the cosmos doesn’t merely exist. It means.
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