Theorem · Chain Position 92 of 346

VICE AS DECOHERENCE

**Vice → coherence decrease (measurable decoherence signature).**

Connections

Assumes

  • None

Enables

  • None
Objections & Responses
Objection: "Successful criminals seem highly integrated"
"A mafia boss runs a tight organization. Where's the decoherence?"
Response

Distinguish organizational coherence from soul coherence. The criminal organization may be coherent, but the criminal's SOUL is fragmented—constant vigilance against betrayal, suppression of empathy, compartmentalization of conscience. External success masks internal decoherence. The mafioso cannot trust, cannot love freely, cannot rest—these are decoherence signatures. Moreover, criminal organizations eventually collapse (instability), while virtuous institutions (churches, families, universities) persist—a thermodynamic proof of coherence differential.

Objection: "Vice feels good—pleasure indicates coherence"
"If sin produces pleasure, doesn't that suggest integration, not fragmentation?"
Response

Pleasure ≠ coherence. Pleasure signals local gradient descent (immediate reward), not global minimum (flourishing). Addiction produces intense pleasure while destroying the person—classic decoherence masked by hedonic signal. True coherence manifests as deep peace, not mere pleasure. The phenomenology of vice includes: post-sin guilt, compulsive repetition, escalation of dose—all decoherence markers. Coherence produces eudaimonia (flourishing); vice produces hedonic spikes amid growing chaos.

Objection: "Some vices are victimless—where's the harm?"
"If I sin privately without hurting anyone, what decoheres?"
Response

The self decoheres. Every sin creates internal contradiction: desire vs. knowledge, action vs. identity, present vs. future self. "Victimless" vice is a myth—the perpetrator is always a victim. Private sin: (a) Fragments the person's integrity, (b) Weakens coupling to the Logos, (c) Creates patterns that inevitably externalize. The "private" alcoholic eventually affects family; the "private" liar eventually misjudges reality. Internal decoherence propagates. Moreover, information is conserved ([[064_BC7_Information-Conservation|BC7]])—sin's decoherence signature is written into the informational structure of reality.

Objection: "Saints struggled with vice—were they decoherent?"
"St. Paul said 'the good I would do I do not.' He sounds fragmented."
Response

The struggle is not the decoherence—the vice itself is. Paul describes the pre-grace state (Romans 7) before victory (Romans 8). The EXPERIENCE of moral struggle is the tension between coherence-seeking (will toward good) and decoherence (sinful nature). Saints who struggled did so because they perceived the decoherence clearly—that's why it hurt. The impenitent sinner, who doesn't struggle, is MORE decohered—they've lost the coherence sensitivity that makes struggle possible. Struggle is the symptom of attempted re-coherence, not of decoherence itself.

Objection: "This reduces morality to physics"
"Vice isn't just 'decoherence'—it's offense against God."
Response

It's BOTH. The theological and physical descriptions are complementary, not competing. God IS the source of coherence (the Logos). Offense against God IS decoherence from the coherence source. The "reduction" is actually an explanation—WHY is sin bad? Because it fragments the soul. WHY does sin separate from God? Because it decouples from the coherence field. The physical description gives content to the theological claim. "Decoherence" is how "offense against God" manifests in the informational structure of reality.

Physics Layer

Quantum Decoherence Theory

Standard decoherence: Environment-induced destruction of quantum coherence.

\rho(t) = \sum_k E_k \rho(0) E_k^\dagger

Where Kraus operators E_k represent environmental interaction.

Moral decoherence: Sin-induced destruction of soul coherence.

\rho_{soul}(t) = \sum_k V_k \rho_{soul}(0) V_k^\dagger

Where V_k represent vicious actions that fragment the soul's density matrix.

Mathematical Layer

Formal Statement

Theorem ([[092_T11.2_Vice-As-Decoherence|T11.2]]): For a soul state ψ, vice V_neg(ψ) correlates negatively with Φ:

\frac{d\Phi}{d(V_{neg})} < 0

Or equivalently: Vice acts as a decoherence operator on the soul's Hilbert space.

Defeat Conditions

To Falsify This

  1. **Show vice increases coherence** — Demonstrate that sinful actions increase Φ over time, that lying, cruelty, or selfishness lead to more integrated information states. This contradicts all phenomenological evidence of sin's fragmenting effect.
  2. **Find high-Φ stable vicious states** — Show that sustained vice maintains or increases coherence indefinitely. But vice requires deception (internal incoherence), conflict (relational incoherence), and denial (cognitive incoherence)—all forms of Φ reduction.
  3. **Decouple vice from decoherence entirely** — Prove that moral degradation has no informational signature. This requires rejecting the coherence-morality identity ([[089_A11.2_Coherence-Morality-Identity|A11.2]]) and the entire information-theoretic framework.
  4. **Demonstrate coherent sinners at equilibrium** — Find individuals whose sustained vice produces stable, integrated, peaceful states. But addicts escalate, liars multiply lies, the corrupt become paranoid—vice is inherently destabilizing.