The Chinese Black Box – A Scientific Model of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

Models of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are still difficult to grasp from the view of a Western-cultural background. For proper integration into science and clinical research, it is vital to think “out of the box” of classical sciences. Modern sciences, such as quantum physics, system theory, and information theory offer new models, that reveal TCM as a method to process information. For this purpose, we apply concepts of information theory to propose a “Chinese black box model,” that allows for a non-deterministic, bottom-up approach. Considering a patient as an undeterminable complex system, the process of getting information about an individual in Chinese diagnostics is compared to the input-process-output principle of information theory and quantum physics, which is further illustrated by Wheeler’s “surprise 20 questions.” In TCM, an observer uses a decision-making algorithm to qualify diagnostic information by the binary polarities of “yang” (latin activity) and “yin” (latin structivity) according to the so called “8 principles” (latin 8 guiding criteria). A systematic reconstruction of ancient Chinese terms and concepts illuminates a scattered scientific method, which is specified in a medical context by Latin terminology of the sinologist Porkert [definitions of the Latin terms are presented in Porkert’s appendix [1] (cf. Limitations)].

Keywords

• traditional Chinese medicine
• acupuncture
• information theory
• quantum theory