Words and concepts can have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used. This glossary provides the descriptions as they are intended in the context of our story about coherence.
Binary
Involving two options, 1 or 0, on or off, open or closed, plus or minus.
Bit
Unit of information that can take on two distinct states.
Causality
A cause-and-effect relationship in which it is determined in advance what the effect of an interaction will be only exists at the macro level. At the quantum level, events are incalculable and unpredictable.
In the view of coherence, a predictable macro-level event (such as the apple falling from a tree) is nothing more than the most probable option, because with a coherent combination of very large numbers of interactions, the improbable options have become negligible.
Collapse
In the Copenhagen interpretation, a collapse is the moment of observation or measurement (interaction with the environment) where a wave function (probability distribution) that was initially in a superposition of different states acquires a specific state.
In our story, the collapse of superposition is the redistribution of information. Collapse is a concept that marks the moment when reversibility has become so improbable that it can be neglected. The collapse is ‘the point of no return’.
Dataism
The view that everything can be translated into computer data.
Decoherence
The redistribution of information from larger systems with their environment. Decoherence has been compared to a ‘heat bath’. Just as an object takes on the temperature of its environment, after a process of redistributions, the object will share information with its environment by means of entanglements.
In our vision, after decoherence coherence remains.
Determinism
Determinism is a concept that matches with cause-and-effect thinking. The vision of coherence knows no determinism, because a new generation of states (a new state of the universe) can manifest itself in different ways.
Downward causality
Downward causality is a concept that shows how emergent phenomena are formed not only by cause-and-effect, step-by-step and one-to-one processes, but also by influences from the environment, together-and-simultaneously. It is an entire collection of effects from the environment. The connection with the environment is central here. Downward causality is especially recognizable at the quantum level.
Emergence
The whole is more than the sum of its parts. New things come into being through new connections with the environment. More is different.
Energy
Energy is a macroscopic concept. Viewed through the lens of coherence, potential energy corresponds to the amount of potential changes in a quantum system.
Entanglement, quantum entanglement
A commonly used description is: Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon in which two or more quantum mechanical objects are connected in such a way that the quantum state of each object cannot be fully described independently of the state of the others – even when the objects are spatially separated (‘non-local’). An entangled pair forms an indivisible whole. ‘It’s here, but it’s there too’. Entanglement is shared information, overlapping information. It is the coherence in the universe.
Entropy
Entropy is a measure of probability for a coherent combination of very large numbers of interactions/events. The occurrence of improbable events becomes negligible at extremely large numbers. Everything shifts to the more likely options. In a closed system, entropy can only increase.
Event
See observation
Gravity
From the viewpoint of coherence, gravity is the probability that spacetime (simply entangled) will disappear from the environment of complex superposition. Under conditions where other influences (in classical terms these are the electromagnetic force, weak force and strong force) are minimal or non-existent, the spacetime between two systems with complex superposition will decrease.
Information
According to information theory, information arises when an event occurs of which it was uncertain beforehand whether it would actually happen. This concerns yes or no, on or off, plus or minus, up or down, 1 or 0. When it comes to superposition which can also have more than two options, this becomes: Information arises when an event occurs of which it was uncertain beforehand what that event would be.
Wheeler argued that information is the basis of everything. Remember, however, this information does not manifests itself in the form of building blocks, or in the sense of ‘particles’.
Seen through the lens of coherence, everything is related to each other by means of superposition. Because superposition can have different compositions, information is not homogeneous. There is variation due to differences in overlap, with different behavior in response to change.
Information is physical.
Interaction
See observation
Mass
Mass is a macroscopic concept, a phenomenon that emerges as a result of many interrelated interactions. Mass refers to the complexity of a system’s superposition. The more complex a superposition, the more difficult changes with the environment occur; simply because there are fewer options. When no other factors are active (such as electric charge, also a macroscopic concept with an effect on the probability of change), the spacetime between two systems with ‘mass’ will always decrease. In classical physics, this effect is called gravity.
The ‘mass’ of a system says something about the (un)probability with which it exchanges information, due to its degree of complexity. The more complex the superposition, the greater the mass.
Measurement
See observation.
Observation
Like an interaction, measurement or event, an observation is the collapse of entanglement. The shared information is hereby redistributed. Existing entanglements are broken, new entanglements arise. Both (all) participants of the observation change.
Quantum, quantum mechanics, quantum information
In retrospect, the term quanta may have been an unfortunate choice, because it directs our focus back to particles. A reference to a coherence of probability distributions might have been more helpful.
Quantum particle
Quantum particle is a tricky term. In the view of coherence, a ‘particle’ at the quantum level is the set of relations with other elements that are in a superposition together. Therefore, it is not a delimitable particle at all, but a ‘set of probabilities’, the superposition of several states at the same time.
Qubit
A qubit, also known as a quantum bit, is a unit of quantum information. It is a combination of two distinct states, at the same time.
Qudit
Superposition of quantum information with a d-number of alternatives.
Qutrit
A quantum trit is a unit of quantum information. It is a combination of three distinct states, at the same time.
Self-organization
Self-organization is the process by which structures automatically come into being in a chaotic system when the parts that make up the system enter into unguided interactions with each other.
In the view of coherence, self-organization is the emergence of patterns that form under specific conditions due to an increase in entropy, because other options under those conditions are so improbable that they can be neglected.
Superposition
We are talking here about quantum superposition, having two or more distinct states at the same time and the same location. ‘It is this and also that’. Therefore, the state is indefinite, and is only determined when superposition collapses. This collapse occurs upon observation/interaction/event/measurement.
Superposition is a probability distribution.
Trit
Unit of information that can take on three distinct states.
Upward causality
With upward causality we mean the same as with the familiar cause-and-effect development. Everything develops in space and time, one-on-one and step-by-step. Elements are seen as isolated from each other. This approach works especially well in simple, macro-level situations. In complex-dynamic situations, and at the quantum level, the addition of the concept of downward causality is necessary to be able to view the course of things.