Title: Is Quantum Uncertainty All in the Mind? - SAND
Headings: Is Quantum Uncertainty All in the Mind?
Is Quantum Uncertainty All in the Mind?
“A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself.”
Frequently wrong
End of observers

Content: Schrödinger’s notorious cat illustrates its conclusion. Shut in a box with a vial of lethal gas that might, or might not, have been released by a random quantum event such as a radioactive decay, the unfortunate feline hangs in limbo, both alive and dead. Only when you open the box does the cat’s wave function “collapse” from its multiple possible states into a single real one. This opens a physical and philosophical can of worms. Einstein pointedly asked whether the observations of a mouse would be sufficient to collapse a wave function. If not, what is so special about human consciousness? If our measurements truly do affect reality, that also opens the door to effects such as “spooky action at a distance” – Einstein’s dismissive phrase to describe how observing a wave function can seemingly collapse another one simultaneously on the other side of the universe. Then there is the mystery of how atoms and particles can apparently adopt split personalities, but macroscopic objects such as cats clearly can’t, despite being made up of atoms and particles. Schrödinger’s intention in introducing his cat was to highlight this inexplicable division between the quantum and classical worlds. The split is not only there, but also “shifty”, in the words of quantum theorist John Bell: