Can we Falsify the Consciousness-Causes-Collapse Hypothesis in Quantum Mechanics?
J. Acacio de Barros, Gary Oas
arXiv Preprint Archive September 2, 2016 preprint
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Quant-ph Physics.hist-ph Quantum foundations Measurement problem |
| Key points | Argues that the mind-matter collapse hypothesis is unfalsifiable under reasonable assumptions about consciousness. |
Abstract
In this paper we examine some proposals to disprove the hypothesis that the interaction between mind and matter causes the collapse of the wave function, showing that such proposals are fundamentally flawed. We then describe a general experimental setup retaining the key features of the ones examined, and show that even a more general case is inadequate to disprove the mind-matter collapse hypothesis. Finally, we use our setup provided to argue that, under some reasonable assumptions about consciousness, such hypothesis is unfalsifiable.
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