Beyond the Einstein-Bohr Debate: Cognitive Complementarity and the Emergence of Quantum Intuition

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Shukla, Lalit Kumar
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Shukla, Lalit Kumar
author_facet Shukla, Lalit Kumar
contents Recent high-precision experimental confirmations of quantum complementarity have revitalized foundational debates about measurement, description, and realism. This article argues that complementarity is most productively interpreted as an epistemic principle--constraining what can be simultaneously accessed and represented--rather than as an ontological claim about quantum reality. Reexamining the Einstein-Bohr debate through this lens reveals a persistent tension between descriptive completeness and contextual meaning, a tension experiments clarify but do not dissolve. Building on this analysis, we introduce cognitive complementarity as a structural principle governing reasoning under non-classical uncertainty, where mutually constraining representations cannot be jointly optimized. Within this framework, we propose quantum intuition as a testable cognitive capacity: the ability to sustain representational plurality, regulate commitment timing, and resolve perspective-incompatibilities in a context-sensitive manner. Formulated as a naturalistic construct grounded in shared informational constraints, quantum intuition offers a principled bridge between quantum measurement theory and cognition. This work reframes the historical debate, extends epistemic lessons from quantum foundations into cognitive science, and outlines empirical pathways for studying decision-making in contexts of irreducible uncertainty.
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spellingShingle Beyond the Einstein-Bohr Debate: Cognitive Complementarity and the Emergence of Quantum Intuition
Shukla, Lalit Kumar
Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
Quantum Physics
2020: 81P05, 81P13, 81P10, 81Q99, 91E99
Recent high-precision experimental confirmations of quantum complementarity have revitalized foundational debates about measurement, description, and realism. This article argues that complementarity is most productively interpreted as an epistemic principle--constraining what can be simultaneously accessed and represented--rather than as an ontological claim about quantum reality. Reexamining the Einstein-Bohr debate through this lens reveals a persistent tension between descriptive completeness and contextual meaning, a tension experiments clarify but do not dissolve. Building on this analysis, we introduce cognitive complementarity as a structural principle governing reasoning under non-classical uncertainty, where mutually constraining representations cannot be jointly optimized. Within this framework, we propose quantum intuition as a testable cognitive capacity: the ability to sustain representational plurality, regulate commitment timing, and resolve perspective-incompatibilities in a context-sensitive manner. Formulated as a naturalistic construct grounded in shared informational constraints, quantum intuition offers a principled bridge between quantum measurement theory and cognition. This work reframes the historical debate, extends epistemic lessons from quantum foundations into cognitive science, and outlines empirical pathways for studying decision-making in contexts of irreducible uncertainty.
title Beyond the Einstein-Bohr Debate: Cognitive Complementarity and the Emergence of Quantum Intuition
topic Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
Quantum Physics
2020: 81P05, 81P13, 81P10, 81Q99, 91E99
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15314