1. “Scientists haven’t managed to send particles back in time — yet.”
The humour is in the “yet.” The underlying assumption is that particles are little objects that could, in principle, be transported backwards along a universal timeline. But in relational ontology, time is not an absolute container waiting to be traversed. It is a dimension of alignment across events, cut from our construal of experience. To speak of a particle “going back in time” misconstrues both “particle” and “time” as things-in-themselves.
2. “It’s one thing to have a quantum computer, but another to extract the right answer.”
Here we find a practical admission: quantum potential doesn’t translate neatly into determinate results. In relational terms, the system of potential is not identical to its actualisation. The “answer” does not pre-exist in the machine, waiting to be pulled out — it emerges in the cut from potential to event. The challenge is not extraction but construal: how to stabilise meaning across that cut.
3. “Einstein didn’t reject entanglement as spooky action at a distance.”
This correction pushes back against the myth, but still assumes that entanglement describes a physical mechanism out there. From a relational perspective, entanglement is no more “spooky” than language. It is the reflexivity of construal across what we construe as separated instances. Einstein’s discomfort stemmed from his desire for a determinate system behind construal. But if construal is constitutive, there is no “behind.”
4. “GR and QM can be reconciled by quantum spacetime.”
The dream of unification persists: general relativity and quantum mechanics must be stitched into a single theory. But reconciliation does not happen at the level of equations. Both theories already converge in ontology: each is a way of construing reflexive alignment — one across motion, one across possibility. A model of “quantum spacetime” may be elegant, but it does not solve the “problem” unless we recognise that construal itself is the ontological ground.
5. “Quantum computing won’t break all encryption — probably.”
This is the myth of omnipotent potential. The assumption: quantum = limitless power. But potential is not actuality. Every actualisation requires a cut, and cuts bring constraints. Encryption may well survive not because quantum is weak, but because reflexive constraints are inescapable. No system of potential bypasses the constitutive role of construal.
6. “There’s not yet a perfect interpretation of quantum mechanics.”
This is the heart of it. Physicists frame their quest as the search for the correct interpretation — the hidden reality behind the mathematics. But if construal is reality, then there can be no “perfect interpretation.” Interpretations are alternate construals of the same reflexive ground. The “stroke of inspiration” that physicists await will not reveal the truth behind quantum mechanics. It will reveal that truth itself is always a matter of construal.
Conclusion
The myths, and their debunkings, both circle around the same blind spot: the assumption that there is a reality behind experience waiting to be captured. Relational ontology flips this around. Construal is not a veil over reality. It is the very ground of meaning and experience. What we call “quantum” is nothing spooky, mysterious, or mythic — it is the reflexive play of possibility itself, cut into event through construal.
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