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Revised comment on the paper titled "The Origin of Quantum Mechanical Statistics: Insights from Research on Human Language

Mikołaj Sienicki, Krzysztof Sienicki

Abstract

This short note comments on \citet{Aerts2024Origin}, which proposes that ranked word frequencies in texts should be read through the lens of Bose--Einstein (BE) statistics and even used to illuminate the origin of quantum statistics in physics. The core message here is modest: the paper offers an interesting analogy and an eye-catching fit, but several key steps mix physical claims with definitions and curve-fitting choices. We highlight three such points: (i) a normalization issue that is presented as "bosonic enhancement", (ii) an identification of rank with energy that makes the BE fit only weakly diagnostic of an underlying mechanism, and (iii) a baseline comparison that is too weak to support an ontological conclusion. We also briefly flag a few additional concerns (interpretation drift, parameter semantics, and reproducibility).

Revised comment on the paper titled "The Origin of Quantum Mechanical Statistics: Insights from Research on Human Language

Abstract

This short note comments on \citet{Aerts2024Origin}, which proposes that ranked word frequencies in texts should be read through the lens of Bose--Einstein (BE) statistics and even used to illuminate the origin of quantum statistics in physics. The core message here is modest: the paper offers an interesting analogy and an eye-catching fit, but several key steps mix physical claims with definitions and curve-fitting choices. We highlight three such points: (i) a normalization issue that is presented as "bosonic enhancement", (ii) an identification of rank with energy that makes the BE fit only weakly diagnostic of an underlying mechanism, and (iii) a baseline comparison that is too weak to support an ontological conclusion. We also briefly flag a few additional concerns (interpretation drift, parameter semantics, and reproducibility).

Paper Structure

This paper contains 8 sections, 8 equations.