The Evolution of the Chair

In reality, it's a data structure that I create on the fly and destroy when I don't need it. From an evolutionary point of view, as you pointed out, the symbols that we have have been shaped by natural selection to help us stay alive. We better take them seriously. But just because we take them seriously doesn't mean that we take them literally. The chair has no position, no momentum, no physical properties when it's not observed,. Because the chair is not a pre-existing object. So I wouldn't step in front of the SUV for the same reason I wouldn't take my blue rectangular icon for an email I'm writing and carelessly drag it to the trash