BCSSS Scientific Council member Rainer E. Zimmermann gave a talk at the working group Information Studies of the Austrian Computer Society.
On 6 June, 2014, he outlined how the concepts of entanglement and decoherence rooted in quantum theoretical considerations can be fertilised for the difference between dyadic entanglements of individual persons, on the one hand, and roles or functions mediating actors through organisational relationships, on the other. The context is spanned by „energy“/“mass“ – traditionally refered to as „matter“ (energy depicts a potential and mass is actualised energy) and „entropy“/“structure“ – which refers to „information“ (entropy is potential information and structure is actualised information). Social entanglements work in the private sphere without communication, whereas roles and functions need to be communicated since they are part of co-operation.
Considerations like those have also political implications as can be learned from the slide in the snapshot below.
(photo: Wolfgang Hofkirchner)
The talk was given in German.
Please find the presentation here.