Quantum information science has revolutionised how we understand computation, encryption, and the very fabric of knowledge itself. Yet, at its core lies a tension: information is often treated as something that can be encoded, stored, and transmitted like a physical substance. Quantum theory, however, resists this metaphor.
In this post, we reframe quantum information as a relational process of constraint, coherence, and transformation, not a transferable object. Communication, in turn, becomes the co-actualisation of structure across distributed relational fields.
1. The Classical Model of Information
In classical terms:
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Information is quantified (in bits),
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It is separable from the medium (Shannon’s model of transmission),
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Communication is the movement of an invariant message from sender to receiver through a channel.
Quantum mechanics disrupts this narrative.
2. Quantum Information: Entanglement, No-Cloning, and Context
Quantum information exhibits:
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Non-clonability: unknown quantum states cannot be copied,
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Entanglement: information is not localised, but distributed non-classically,
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Context-dependence: measurement changes the informational configuration.
These features resist any interpretation of information as a discrete entity or substance.
3. A Relational View of Information
In relational ontology:
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Information is not in the particle or the message, but in the pattern of relations between systems,
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Communication becomes a restructuring of relational coherence—a shift in the topology of potentialities,
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An “informational event” is an actualisation of compatibility between interrelated systems under constraint.
This means that information cannot be separated from the conditions of its emergence.
4. Quantum Communication as Coherence Management
Protocols like quantum teleportation, superdense coding, or entanglement-assisted communication illustrate that:
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What is “transmitted” is not the state itself but the capacity to reconstruct coherence through shared constraints,
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Communication requires pre-existing relational entanglement,
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Successful communication is the reproduction of systemic structure, not mere transfer of symbols.
5. Implications for Meaning and Representation
Relational information:
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Undermines representational models that treat meaning as static content,
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Suggests that “meaning” in quantum systems is an emergent property of synchronised relational structure,
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Invites a shift from information-as-substance to information-as-coherence-dynamics.
Closing
Quantum information is not a quantum version of classical messaging. It is a dance of coherence across relational fields, a dynamic redistribution of potential constrained by context. Communication is not the transport of meaning, but the re-actualisation of structure across interconnected systems.
In our next post, we will take up the challenge of emergence—how classicality, causality, and separability arise from fundamentally relational quantum processes.
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