This is why consciousness is irrelevant. We are physical systems no different to other physical systems, which means that physics can teach us something about ourselves and not just things that are 'out there, independent of us'. I don't think you even realise just how horrible this line of thought is for people like you, and just how much this totally and utterly ruins idealist thought. This is the real lesson of QM, and I'm quite glad that you've stumbled across it. — StreetlightX
Well, Wheeler says that our participation actually creates the Universe out of the cloud of possibilities. What kind of 'physicalism' is that? — Wayfarer
'No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon'. John Archibald Wheeler — Wayfarer
Observation = measurement = interaction, where our interaction - that of a bunch of moderately clever apes on a small watery rock in the middle of nowhere - is the same as all interaction, everywhere. — StreetlightX
It can be there when no-one is looking at it because the concept is of the existing state itself. We are not required for it to be. — TheWillowOfDarkness
↪Andrew M Fair enough, I stand corrected. But I still think it’s a legitimate question as to whether any actual ‘registration’ has occurred in the absence of an observer, who in such cases, creates the very machine which records the observation. — Wayfarer
Since the device itself is not other than a potential field of possibilities unless an observer is factored in... — snowleopard
Well I remain unconvinced ... Since the device itself is not other than a potential field of possibilities unless an observer is factored in, the idea that the device is 'observing' something seems entirely dependent upon the conscious agent that is observing it, — snowleopard
This sentence doesn't make any sense. — StreetlightX
According to QM, is the device not comprised of nothing other than interacting quantum fluctuations in the zero-point field? — snowleopard
I'm curious what you mean by 'accounting for consciousness.' — frank
QM has nothing to say about what a device 'is' — StreetlightX
Where is the device in it? — StreetlightX
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