Title: Q & A: Observer Effect? | Department of Physics | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Headings: 
Q & A: Observer Effect?
Follow-Up #1: quantum
Follow-Up #2: observation and light
Follow-Up #3: measurement and consciousness?
Follow-Up #4: free-will?
Follow-Up #5: confusion between the uncertainty principle and the observer effect
Follow-Up #6: Quantum for the non-scientist
Follow-Up #7: Unconscious observers
Follow-Up #8: Bell's Inequalities and free will
Follow-Up #9: free will and quantum mechanics
Follow-Up #10: what collapses wavefunction?
Follow-Up #11: What causes quantum interference loss

Content: That doesn't mean that the necessary determining facts are hard to find; it means they didn't exist. On the other hand, when we think of "free will" we have the sense that there was some prior "will" which determined what we chose to do. However, the existence of any such will would violate the theorems as much as any other determining variable. Thus since the peculiar randomness of quantum events undermines the deterministic picture of the world it could be said to indicate a sort of "freedom", but not anything resembling traditional "free will." Mike W.
(published on 08/24/2010)
Follow-Up #5: confusion between the uncertainty principle and the observer effect
Q: There's a lot of confusion between the uncertainty principle and the observer effect, leading to the new age, nonsensical claim that we can willfully create the world around us by altering our thoughts. So, to be clear (because there's a lot of conflicting info out there), when we talk about "observing" an electron and thereby changing its state, we're talking about using equipment to measure it, not simply observing with the naked eye, right? - Ian (age 29)
California
A: