Ask A Genius 1452: Relevance Logic and Contextual Computation: Alternative Logic Systems
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/07/15
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner discuss relevance logic, a form of logic where premises must be meaningfully tied to conclusions. The conversation explores how context-based computation reflects this logic style, contrasts it with classical logic, and addresses whether alternative logics reduce to quantum mechanics. Academic proliferation of logic types is noted.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So this one I had not heard of before—it is called relevance logic. This ties into what we discussed earlier: context-based logic architectures. The idea is that the underlying infrastructure of a chip incorporates different types of computation, but organizes them optimally to match the processing required.
Relevance logic ensures that premises are meaningfully connected to conclusions, unlike classical logic, where even absurd arguments can be logically valid if they follow correct form.
What are your thoughts?
Rick Rosner: It sounds like the right tool for the right job.
There is a reverse version of that idea, too: “To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Alternatively, “Give every cop a gun, and every situation starts looking like one that requires shooting.”
This seems to be the opposite—using the logic that fits the context.
However, here is a thought. Since you are at a computer, why not ask online whether all these different types of logic—fuzzy logic, modal logic, relevance logic—ultimately reduce to quantum mechanics?
Maybe it will flatter you. Perhaps it will say, “I do not know.”
Jacobsen: The actual answer is: no. Ideas inspired some in quantum mechanics, but they do not reduce to it. That is what I found. Uncertainty, paradox, and alternative semantics may share motivations with quantum models, but they are not derivations from it…
So, I examined it more closely. Not all forms of logic can be traced back to quantum mechanics, but some have been influenced by it. That hints at something more general being at play, or some of these alternative logics are not useful.
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Also, part of the proliferation comes from academia. Thousands of professors and graduate students around the world have chosen logic as their field, and they must continue to publish in this area. So, they invent new forms of logic.
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