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author:
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    Juan G. Roederer [^1]\
    Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks\
    Fairbanks AK, 99775, USA
title: Pragmatic Information in Quantum Mechanics
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*Abstract*: An objective definition of pragmatic information and the consideration of recent results about information-processing in the human brain can help overcome some traditional difficulties with the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Rather than attempting to define information *ab initio*, I introduce the concept of interaction between material bodies as a primary concept. Two distinct categories can be identified: 1) Interactions which can always be reduced to a superposition of physical interactions (forces) between elementary constituents; 2) Interactions between complex bodies which cannot be reduced to a superposition of interactions between parts, and in which *patterns and forms* (in space and/or time) play the determining role. Pragmatic information is then defined as the correspondence between a given pattern and the ensuing pattern-specific change. I will show that pragmatic information is a biological concept that plays no active role in the purely physical domain—it only does so when a living organism intervenes. The consequences for the foundations of both classical and quantum physics are important and will be discussed in detail. Since by its very definition pragmatic 