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What is an observer?
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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Quantum Computing
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I'm wondering if it is that simple. Does the observer needs to have a "consciousness" ? Is a photon colliding with an atom is consider as the observer, or is it the scientist that lighted up the atom which is the observer ?
If we takes Schrödinger cats, when does the measure happen ? When the sensor detect the radioactive particle ? When the cat realize its death ? When the box is open ? When someone actually looks inside the box ?
That's true questions, I'm trying to understand quantum physics since years, but the sources I find are either too simple ("The cat is both dead and alive, It means there are parallel universe !), either too complicated (directly jump to equations).
Well. Philosophically, many might argue that. The classic, "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
The materialist in me would say certainly. Mechanical sound waves exist independently of your, or anyone, hearing them. And indeed, if we set up a camera in the woods and capture the tree falling, the microphone will hopefully clearly capture the sound as the lens does the image.
You must remember when you're playing with quantum you're playing probabilities. No guarantees.
I read a study not too long ago where they claimed to measure the photonic wake (like on a lake) and they could tune the strength of detection with the interference pattern and were able to get a gradient between full interference and none based on the resonance of the detector.
So that kind of throws a wrench into the box with the cat...