merely conceivable

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Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Merely conceivable names, in Kastner’s classification, an idea or description that does not thereby qualify as a physically real quantum possibility. Even consistency with physical law is insufficient: prepared or emitted quantum states occupy the possible category. The author marks a broader use above this quantum floor while continuing to exclude arbitrary fancies.

Explanation

RB1 presents three categories: empirically measurable actuality, prepared or emitted quantum possibility, and ideas in someone’s mind. The first two receive physical reality in Kastner’s scheme. A description that merely avoids contradiction with physical law does not thereby name an operative quantum possibility capable of an observable transaction.

AB explicitly says that its wider use of potentia above the quantum floor belongs to the author. That extension should remain visible rather than being attributed back to Kastner. Ordinary prospective possibilities likewise need not satisfy the stricter technical classification simply because everyday language calls them possible.

The reality of imagining must also be separated from the content imagined. AB’s unicorn qualification and RB3’s note allow the imagining to be an actual mental event without admitting its object as a physically available possibility. This preserves the distinction without denying that thought occurs.

Scope and attribution

Retain the attributed subentry; do not erase the author’s declared extension.

AB — The Actual Book

The author declares the widening above Kastner’s narrow quantum bracket.

Occurrence locators: Epilogue: 215; Notes: 237, 251.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

The three-way classification excludes the merely law-consistent from physical potentia.

Occurrence locators: 66, 67.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

The act of imagining does not confer physical possibility on its content.

Occurrence locators: Notes: 40, 356; Epilogue: 355, 356.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.