What Kind of World Supports Darwinian Evolution? Quantum Foundational Options

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16286v1
• Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:11:58 GMT
• Title: What Kind of World Supports Darwinian Evolution? Quantum Foundational Options
• Authors: Partha Ghose,
• Abstract summary: Darwinian evolution requires (i) heritable records, (ii) repeatable copying with variation, and (iii) routine irreversibility.<n> Categorical quantum mechanics (CQM) makes precise why copy'' and delete'' are not generic quantum operations.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Darwinian evolution requires (i) heritable records, (ii) repeatable copying with variation, and (iii) routine irreversibility. Categorical quantum mechanics (CQM) makes precise why ``copy'' and ``delete'' are not generic quantum operations: they exist only for a realized \emph{classical data} sector (a preferred basis/observable; a commutative structure). Decoherence explains how a pointer basis can be selected dynamically, but it does not by itself select a unique outcome. This motivates a neutral presentation of the main ontological options (unique-history, decohered multiplicity, agent-relative facticity, and a stochastic foundation with variable diffusion). We also note the relevance of the ``agency constraint'' argued by Adlam-McQueen-Waegell: in a strictly coherent, basis-unselected ``purely quantum'' regime, minimal agency fails due to no-cloning and linearity, which sharpens the role of classical resources for record-based processes. Extended Wigner's Friend scenarios then serve as a stress test, since they treat ``friends'' simultaneously as coherent quantum systems and as agents possessing stable records. Finally, a stochastic-mechanics foundation (with variable diffusion) offers a continuous bridge between quantum and classical regimes, and suggests a principled way to implement measurement update as conditioning plus a time-symmetric minimal-change rule.

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