The Dead-Alive Physicist experiment: a case-study disproving the hypothesis that consciousness causes the wave-function collapse in the quantum measurement process
C. Roselli, B. Stella
June 11, 2020
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that a proposed thought experiment, "DAP" (Dead-Alive Physicist), in which a human replaces Schrödinger's cat, logically disproves the consistency of the hypothesis that an observer's consciousness is necessary for quantum measurement, obliging supporters of that hypothesis either to accept solipsism or to adopt an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the conscious observer's role is reconsidered. |
Abstract
This paper aims to falsify the hypothesis that the observer's consciousness is necessary for quantum measurement. To achieve our target, we propose a variation of the Schroedinger's cat thought experiment called "DAP", short for "Dead-Alive Physicist", in which a human being replaces the cat. This strategy enables us to logically disprove the consistency of the above hypothesis and to oblige its supporters either to be trapped in solipsism or to rely on an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the role of the conscious observer has to be reviewed. Our analysis hence provides support to clarify the relationship between the observer the objects of her/his experimental observation; this and a few other implications are discussed in the fourth section and in the conclusions.