question
active
question:can-a-finite-agent-obtain-evidence-that-it-is-separable-from-its-environmentCan a finite agent obtain evidence that it is separable from its environment?
The central question the paper answers negatively via quantum information theory
Source paper
extracted_from(2026) · Lars Sandved-Smith · Chris Fields · Thomas Doctor · Ruben Laukkonen +1
Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count
Findings (1)
finding
- The core impossibility result imported from quantum information theory; basis of the entire argument
Claims (1)
claim
- Core claim of the paper; derives from Corollary 3.1 of Fields & Glazebrook (2023)
Related by similarity (8)
cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edgeEntities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.
- Consequence of the no-self-measurement result; the boundary cannot be empirically established.
- Central thesis: the self-environment cut cannot be self-evidencing.
- The idea that the agent can be distinguished as an entity separate from its environment.
- Prior result from quantum information theory cited as evidence.
- Generalises the core result via Corollary 3.2 of Fields & Glazebrook (2023) to ground Buddhist teaching that all dharmas are empty
- Established via Zanardi (2002) and the Hamiltonian decomposition argument in §2.1; foundational for the emptiness formalisation
- Subjective corollary of the boundary unmeasurability claim.
- Translates the formal impossibility into phenomenological terms.