Speaker
Description
The late twentieth century witnessed a profound reorientation in the conceptual foundations of physics, driven by renewed attention to questions of information, observation, and the nature of physical reality. At the heart of this transformation stand two figures whose work, though developed in distinct contexts and with different motivations, converges on a shared insight: that physical systems cannot be fully described in isolation, but only through their relations. John Archibald Wheeler’s proposal of a “participatory universe” and Carlo Rovelli’s formulation of Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) each offer radical reconfigurations of quantum theory, grounded in a reconceptualization of information as a physical and relational entity. This talk compares John A. Wheeler’s “participatory universe” and Carlo Rovelli’s Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM), highlighting their shared emphasis on interaction and information. Though emerging from distinct contexts—Wheeler from cosmology and cybernetics, Rovelli from quantum gravity—both interpretations reflect a broader shift in late twentiethcentury physics toward relational and information-based ontologies. We trace their intellectual backgrounds and argue that each redefines physical reality not in terms of intrinsic properties, but through interaction and informational correlation. Finally, we suggest that developments in black hole physics and quantum gravity have served as a common testing ground, where foundational questions in quantum mechanics are reinterpreted through the lens of relational structure.
