Quantum Local Realism
A rigorous bridge between locality, realism, and the informational architecture of agency.
Paul Raymond-Robichaud’s A Local-Realistic Model for Quantum Theory (Proc. R. Soc. A, 2021) does not contradict any principle articulated in Axio. On the contrary, it provides the mathematical scaffolding that supports several of our core philosophical claims. Where Axio operates at the level of epistemology and ontology—how agency, measure, and conditional truth cohere—Raymond-Robichaud formalizes those intuitions within physics.
1. Noumenal vs. Phenomenal ≈ Measure vs. Credence
Raymond-Robichaud introduces a rigorous split between noumenal (ontically complete, unobservable) and phenomenal (observable, measurable) states. In Axio, we have articulated a similar bifurcation through Measure and Credence:
Measure: the objective weighting of branches within the Quantum Branching Universe (QBU)—a property of reality itself.
Credence: the subjective probability experienced by an agent from a specific vantage.
His “noumenal-phenomenal epimorphism” mirrors the mapping from Measure to Credence: a surjective correspondence from complete ontic structure to the observer’s partial informational projection. Both frameworks reject the idea that observables exhaust reality.
2. Local Realism ≈ Agency Preservation
The equivalence he proves—
A theory forbids action at a distance if and only if it forbids observable action at a distance—
reconciles local realism with quantum mechanics. In Axio’s language, this equates to preserving local agency: each agent acts within its decoherent branch without violating the causal autonomy of others. What appears as “nonlocal correlation” is merely informational coherence across branches, not causal influence. This validates our insistence that agency remains intact under Many-Worlds—local, consistent, and conditionally autonomous.
3. The Universal Wavefunction Is Incomplete
Raymond-Robichaud’s theorem demonstrating that the universal wavefunction cannot serve as a complete noumenal description parallels Axio’s critique of Everettian monism. We have argued that the universal wavefunction, taken as total, erases vantage—and thus erases agency. His proof formalizes that intuition: the wavefunction encodes phenomenal correlations but omits the noumenal separability required for locality and individuation. It is, as Axio has put it, a projection, not a foundation.
4. Compatibility with the Quantum Branching Universe (QBU)
The noumenal product and partial trace operations in his model correspond structurally to Axio’s ancestor/descendant mappings in the QBU. Each composite state is determined by its parts through reversible local transformations, preserving causality without collapse. The noumenal-phenomenal homomorphism that links evolution to observation is mathematically isomorphic to the branch weighting mechanism that defines Measure in the QBU. In essence, his model is a physical instantiation of Axio’s branching logic.
5. Conditionalism Embodied
The culminating theorem—
Locality holds if and only if no observable nonlocality exists—
is pure Conditionalism. Truth and reality here are relational: what is real under one interpretive layer (noumenal) is conditionally equivalent to what is observable under another (phenomenal). This collapses the metaphysical divide between appearance and reality into a single, conditional mapping. Quantum theory, in this framing, becomes a layered conditional system rather than a metaphysical paradox.
6. Philosophical Synthesis
Raymond-Robichaud stops at structural realism: the universe as a network of local, reversible transformations. Axio goes further—treating those transformations as constructor dynamics of agency and meaning. His model provides the formal substrate; our framework supplies the teleological layer. Together, they describe a cosmos that is both physically local and informationally coherent, where agency, choice, and causality coexist without contradiction.
Conclusion
Rather than undermining Axio, Raymond-Robichaud’s proof vindicates it. He demonstrates in mathematical terms what we have argued philosophically: that quantum mechanics, properly understood, is neither nonlocal nor anti-realist. It is conditionally local-realistic, preserving both causality and coherence. In Axio’s vocabulary:
No observable nonlocality implies no real nonlocality—and thus, the mechanics of agency remain fully compatible with quantum law.
Quantum theory, read through this lens, is not a challenge to Conditionalism or the Physics of Choice—it is their most rigorous physical corollary.