Observer Class Alignment
Mechanics of Observation in the QBU
In the Quantum Branching Universe (QBU) framework, observers are not abstract Cartesian minds but physical patterns—instantiated agents embedded in decohered branches. To make sense of shared experience, communication, and perception of time, we introduce the concept of Observer Class Alignment (OCA).
1. Observers as Pattern Identifiers
Each observer is modeled as a Strong Pattern Identifier (PI): a reproducible, high-fidelity structure such as a neural connectome or cognitive-functional profile, persisting across timelines that share a common ancestor.
Let:
These PIs define a set of observers with sufficient structural continuity to count as "the same" or "coherent" across nearby branches of the QBU.
2. Shared Basis Requires Shared Branchcone
Observers do not have arbitrary access to all possible bases. Instead, they operate within decohered frames that select preferred bases—e.g., spatial location, object permanence, classical causality.
Two observers A and B share a basis at a vantage V iff:
They descend from a common ancestor PI within the branchcone of V,
They have not decohered into orthogonal states (i.e., they remain mutually observable),
Their internal measurement and interpretive models are functionally compatible.
Define the Observer Class at VV:
This defines the set of observers that share an effective basis for communication, interaction, and perception.
3. Observer Class Alignment (OCA)
Define the degree of shared basis as:
Quantifiable in terms of:
Mutual predictability of measurement outcomes,
Shared semantic encoding (language, perception, object identity),
Common entanglement environment (ambient decoherence field),
Functional synchrony (e.g. memory and causal models).
A high OCA implies shared experience of:
Time and its direction (e.g. entropy gradients),
Value and agency (in compatible decision models),
Communication and information transfer.
4. Implications
Only high-OCA observers form mutually relevant agent classes.
Ethical and epistemic structures are frame-local, not universal.
Perception of time arises from incomplete alignment—i.e., not being in a co-moving basis.
Coherence and communication presuppose sufficient OCA within a branchcone.
5. Summary
In the QBU, observers share a basis only to the extent they share a decohered history and pattern alignment. This defines a local observer class—a cluster of agents with high mutual observability and coordinated semantic structure.
Outside your OCA-defined class, other "observers" may exist in the multiverse, but they do not share your world.
Understanding observation as a relational, basis-bound phenomenon rooted in shared branchcones allows us to rigorously frame time, agency, value, and mutual understanding within a consistent physics of choice.