We show that the Brussels operational-realistic approach to quantum physics
and quantum cognition offers a fundamental strategy for modeling the meaning
associated with collections of documental entities. To do so, we take the World
Wide Web as a paradigmatic example and emphasize the importance of
distinguishing the Web, made of printed documents, from a more abstract meaning
entity, which we call the Quantum Web, or QWeb, where the former is considered
to be the collection of traces that can be left by the latter, in specific
measurements, similarly to how a non-spatial quantum entity, like an electron,
can leave localized traces of impact on a detection screen. The double-slit
experiment is extensively used to illustrate the rationale of the modeling,
which is guided by how physicists constructed quantum theory to describe the
behavior of the microscopic entities. We also emphasize that the superposition
principle and the associated interference effects are not sufficient to model
all experimental probabilistic data, like those obtained by counting the
relative number of documents containing certain words and co-occurrences of
words. For this, additional effects, like context effects, must also be taken
into consideration.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, Late
