The physicist inside the ambiguous room: an argument against the need of consciousness in the quantum mechanical measurement process

DOI10.1007/S10701-022-00563-ZMaRDI QIDQ2139448zbMATHOpenAlexFDO

Authors Carlo Roselli

Publication date 17 May 2022

Published in Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.02174

zbMATH Keywords

collapse of the wave functionWigner's friendconsciousness causes collapse hypothesisObserver's consciousnesssuperposition of macroscopically distinguishable statesthe measurement problem in quantum mechanicsSchrödinger's cat

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Management decision making, including multiple objectives (90B50) Physics (00A79) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40)

Abstract: This paper aims to invalidate the hypothesis that consciousness is necessary for the quantum measurement process. To achieve this target, I propose a considerable modification of the Schroedinger cat and the Dead-Alive Physicist thought experiments, called 'PIAR', short for Physicist Inside the Ambiguous Room. A specific strategy has enabled me to plan the experiment in such a way as to logically justify the inconsistency of the above hypothesis and to oblige its supporters to rely on an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the real-world phenomena exist independently of our conscious mind and where observers play no special role. Moreover, in my description, the measurement apparatus will be complete, in the sense that the experiment, given that it includes also the experimenter, will begin and end exclusively within a sealed room. Hence, my analysis provides a logical explanation of the relationship between the observer and the objects of her/his experimental observation; this and a few other implications are discussed in the fifth section and the conclusions.

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Cited in

(5)

• Quantum mechanics needs no consciousness
• Can we falsify the consciousness-causes-collapse hypothesis in quantum mechanics?
• Response to Nauenberg's ``Critique of quantum enigma: physics encounters consciousness
• Quanta and qualia
• The dead-alive physicist experiment: a case-study against the hypothesis that consciousness causes the wave-function collapse in the quantum mechanical measurement process

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