Eigenforms and Quantum Physics

Our essay begins with explication of the notion of eigenform as pioneered by Heinz von Foerster in his papers (Foerster, 1981, pp. 258–271, pp. 274–285, pp. 288–309) and explored in papers of the author (Kauffman, 2003, pp. 73–90, 2005, pp. 129–150; 2009, pp. 121–137, 2010, pp. 48–89). In Foerster (1981, pp. 274–285) the familiar objects of our existence can be seen as tokens for the behaviors of the organism, creating apparently stable forms. Such an attitude toward objects makes it impossible to discriminate between the object as an element of a world and the object as a token or symbol that is simultaneously a process. The notion of an eigenform is inextricably linked with second-order cybernetics. One starts on the road to such a concept as soon as one begins to consider a pattern of patterns, the form of form or the cybernetics of cybernetics. Such concepts appear to loop around upon themselves, and at the same time they lead outward to new points of view. Such circularities suggest a possibility of transcending the boundaries of a system from within. When a circular concept is called into being, the boundaries turn inside out. An object, in itself, is a symbolic entity, participating in a network of interactions, taking on its apparent solidity and stability from these interactions. We ourselves are such objects, we as human beings are signs for ourselves, a concept originally due to the American philosopher C. S. Peirce (Kauffman, 2001, pp. 79–110). Eigenforms are mathematical companions to Peirce’s work. In an observing system, what is observed is not distinct from the system itself, nor can one make a separation between the observer and the observed. The observer and