Consciousness causes collapse

"Consciousness causes collapse" is the name given to a non-scientific and generally disputed interpretation of quantum mechanics according to which observation by a conscious observer is causally associated with wave function collapse. Treatments of the topic outside of the mainstream scientific community and in popular culture have been widely criticized as pseudoscience.

The interpretation

This interpretation attributes the process of wave function collapse (directly, indirectly, or even partially) to consciousness itself. However, proponents cannot explain which things have sufficient consciousness to collapse the wave function ("Was the wave function waiting to jump for thousands of millions of years
until a single-celled living creature appeared? Or did it have to wait a little
longer for some highly qualified measurer - with a PhD?"). It is also not clear whether measuring devices might also be considered conscious.

Mysticism, New Age and New Thought belief

It has been claimed that the idea meshes well with ancient Eastern mysticism and philosophy, including that of Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism which includes a belief in the transitory, interconnected nature of all things and the illusion of separation of thought and existence. This is one of the major themes of Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics. It also meshes well with the views of the New Thought Movement.

The view is also presented in the popular and controversial documentaries ' and The Secret, alongside some unrelated biological discussions, and is a major plot point in Greg Egan's novel Quarantine, as well as playing a significant role in Charlie Stross's novel The Atrocity Archives.

Objections from physicists
In general, physicists regard this idea as a non-scientific or pseudoscientific concept, pointing out that it is experimentally unfalsifiable and that it introduces unnecessary elements into physics, rather than .

Wim De Muynck comments that

The human observer is as dispensable in quantum mechanics as he (short for `he or she') is in classical mechanics. He sees only the macroscopic parts of his measuring instruments. In present-day practice of the physical science of the microscopic domain human observation is largely restricted to the tables and graphs that have been printed on the basis of data obtained by the scientists computer from a measuring instrument of which the measurement results are sent to the computer without any human interference.

An influence like the reduction (collapse) of the wave packet, allegedly exerted by a human observer on a microscopic object by means of observation, would be equally miraculous as killing a fly by just looking at ones fly swatter.

Recent study of quantum decoherence casts new light onto the problem by reducing the importance of the "macroscopic observer" originally introduced in the language of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory. Modern scientific discourse has evolved to try to quantify how quantum systems decohere due to their interactions with the surroundings. In this manner a unified view of all quantum interactions can be developed that treats neighboring quantum systems, thermal baths and the measurement apparatus on the same footing.

Notes and References

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See Also

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