superpositions

In recent quantum mechanics, the notion of hologram plays an important role: the image of an object which catches not only its actual state but also its interference pattern with other options that were lost when the actual state imposed itself. It is very productive to apply this notion to human history, and, perhaps the supreme example of holographic history is provided none other than by Marx. Marx is not an evolutionist, he writes history “top-down,” i.e., his starting point is the contemporary global capitalist order, and from this point he reads the entire history as a gradual approximation to capitalism. This is not teleology: history is not guided by capitalism as its telos, but once capitalism emerges, it provides the key to the entire (pre)history – here enters Marx’s well-known story (in Grundrisse) of linear development from prehistorical societies through Asiatic despotism, Antique slavery, and feudalism to capitalism. There is no teleological necessity in this development, it results from a series of contingent collapses of superpositions