In nature things are as they are.
Correlation is a concept which we use to describe the connections we perceive.
The word and concept of `correlation' have no significance apart from people.
This is because only people use words and concepts.
Correlation is a concept.
Subatomic particles are correlations.
If we are not here to make them, there would not be any concepts,
including the concept of correlation.
The same is true of
particles.
If we were not here to make them, there would not be any particles.
From a pragmatic point of view nothing can be said about the world
"out there'
except via our concepts.
Even in the world of our concepts particles
do not have a separate and independent existence.
They are represented by wave functions (Schrödinger's wave equation);
and the meaning of the wave function
lies only in the correlation of other macroscopic things.
Since the wave function is thought to be a complete description of physical reality,
and since that which the wave function describes is an idea as well as matter,
the world cannot be as it appears.
A macroscopic object like a table or a chair has an experienced meaning.
That is, we organize our sensory perceptions directly in terms of it.
These experiences are such that we can believe that the object has an existence
and a well-defined location in space-time,
that is logically independent of other things.
But the concept of independent existence evaporates at the subatomic level.
If it has an idea-like aspect, the physical world cannot be substantive in the usual sense of the word.
One hundred percent matter is one hundred percent idea.
The Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics
states that the physical world is not what it appears to be.
It states that what we perceive to be physical reality
is actually our cognitive construction of it.
This cognitive construction may appear to be substantive,
but the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics
leads directly to the conclusion that the physical world itself does not exist.
----------
The Copenhagen Interpretation and the Nature of Space and Time." American
Journal of Physics. 1977.
The mind is such that it can only deal with ideas.
It is not possible for the mind to relate to anything other than ideas.
Therefore, it is not correct to think that the mind can actually ponder reality.
All that the mind can ponder are its own ideas about reality.
Therefore, whether or not an idea is true is not a matter of how closely it corresponds to the absolute reality,
but how consistent it is with our experience.
Even the Copenhagen interpreters of quantum mechanics
were forced by their own findings to acknowledge
that a complete understanding of reality lies beyond
the capabilities of rational thought.