Thoughts and thinkers: On the complementarity between objects and processes

Abstract

We argue that “processes versus objects” is not a useful dichotomy. There is, instead, substantial theoretical utility in viewing “objects” and “processes” as complementary ways of describing persistence through time, and hence the possibility of observation and manipulation. This way of thinking highlights the role of memory as an essential resource for observation, and makes it clear that “memory” and “time” are also mutually inter-defined, complementary concepts. We formulate our approach in terms of the Free Energy Principle (FEP) of Friston and colleagues and the fundamental idea from quantum theory that physical interactions can be represented by linear operators. Following Levin (2024) [30], we emphasize that memory is, first and foremost, an interpretative function, from which the idea of memory as a record, at some level of accuracy, of past events is derivative. We conclude that the distinction between objects and processes is always contrived, and always misleading, and that science would be better served by abandoning it entirely.