For Bohm, this pilot wave is real and exists in a deeper level of reality—a sort of “implicate order” behind the scenes. So rather than the wave function being just a description of possibilities, it is an ontological reality, quietly steering the universe.
But how does this deterministic machinery look from the vantage point of our relational, construal-based cosmos?
The Pilot Wave as Potential Landscape
In our view, the cosmos is not a machine running on hidden gears—it is an unfolding of meaning through relational actualisation.
The pilot wave, then, can be reinterpreted as:
A structure of potential meaning—real not as a physical wave, but as a systemic field from which construal selects a path.
This rescues what’s valuable in Bohm’s idea (the idea that potential has shape and structure) while sidestepping his deterministic commitments.
In other words: yes, there is a “landscape” guiding which meanings become actual—but it’s not pushing particles down pre-written tracks. It’s more like a semantic topology in which the contours of context, memory, intention, and resonance all shape what emerges.
Goodbye Clockwork, Hello Construal
Where Bohm wants to say:
“The particle was always going to go that way—look, the pilot wave made it so!”
We say:
“That meaning was always available—but it only became actual through a relational act of construal.”
In our cosmology:
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The “particle path” is not a trail across objective spacetime, but an actualisation of potential in relation to context.
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The “pilot wave” is not a hidden physical force, but the nonlocal network of semiotic potentials that constrain and enable meaning.
So what Bohm calls determinism, we call systemic relevance: not that it had to happen, but that it was coherently available.
What Bohm Misses
Bohm tries to tame the indeterminacy of quantum physics by building a hidden deterministic realm. But in doing so, he misses the central insight of quantum theory:
That potential is not subordinate to actuality—actuality emerges from potential through relation.
In a relational cosmos, meaning precedes matter—or more precisely, what we call matter is meaning, instantiated through construal.
The need for a guiding wave disappears if we understand that:
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There is no particle until an act of construal.
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There is no “hidden cause”—only structured potential.
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The wave function describes available meaning, not secret paths.
Rewriting Bohm in a Relational Light
We can honour Bohm’s deep intuition—that there is more to reality than discrete events—by reframing his metaphors:
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The pilot wave becomes the landscape of meaning potential, shaped by context and coherence.
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The implicate order becomes the systemic interdependence of all potential actualisations.
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The particle’s trajectory becomes the unfolding of a process within a relational matrix.
Bohm’s cosmos is still mechanistic under the hood. Ours is semiotic all the way down.
Closing Thought
Bohm tried to save physics from quantum weirdness by giving it secret gears. But perhaps the weirdness isn’t a bug—it’s the cosmos trying to tell us:
"Stop thinking of me as a mechanism. Start listening to me as a meaning."
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