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An open question about observation, intersection, and reality (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by Laura@lemmy.ml to c/openscience@lemmy.ml

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— a paper that slightly changed how I think

I’d like to share not a conclusion, but a shift in how I’m thinking.

Previously, I was asking whether questions or observation can create reality.

Recently, after reading a particular paper, I found myself reconsidering how that question should be framed.

In the paper, nonlocal correlations between observer-related data and physical systems are suggested, while causal relationships are carefully distinguished and not asserted.

Reading this led me to think that observation may be better understood not as a cause that produces reality, but as an event of intersection.

In quantum theory, the observer and the observed cannot be fully separated. However, this does not necessarily imply that observation issues commands to a physical system.

Rather, it may be that when perspectives intersect, a certain reality temporarily stabilizes.

If so, subjectivity may not be confined to the brain alone, but could be understood as something that appears relationally, within interaction.

From this view, a question is not merely a tool for extracting answers, but an act that creates a shared reference point — an intersection.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/398259486_Empirical_Subjectivity_Intersection_Observer-Quantum_Coherence_Beyond_Existing_Theories_Unifying_Relativity_Quantum_Mechanics_and_Cosmology

What do you think about this paper?

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[–] Laura@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago

Thank you for the explanation. I agree that the observer should not be misunderstood as the introduction of subjective features into the description of nature, and that it can be understood as a function that records decisions and preserves processes in space and time.

As a supplement, the paper linked in the post has a continuation. In a second paper by the same author, Mr. Watanabe, the question of who or what counts as an observer is revisited and redefined based on experimental correlations.

In this follow-up work, the observer is not reduced to a human or a device, but is instead described as a relational structure that emerges at the intersection of different informational domains, such as subjective states, experimental intention, and quantum processes.

In particular, the EEG–quantum correlation experiments suggest a structure in which attributing observation to only the participant, the apparatus, or the experimenter leads to explanatory difficulties. From this, the paper proposes a model in which the interaction field itself temporarily functions as the observer.

For reference, here is the second paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/398259486_Empirical_Subjectivity_Intersection_Observer-Quantum_Coherence_Beyond_Existing_Theories_Unifying_Relativity_Quantum_Mechanics_and_Cosmology

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this observer model.