What if you aren’t actually in control of your own destiny? What if another version of you from some parallel universe is steering the wheel of your life? Or, what if an infinite number of alternate “yous” are all tugging at the controls simultaneously?
That’s essentially the argument physicist Vlatko Vedral laid out recently in Popular Mechanics, using quantum physics to dismantle the idea that human consciousness magically creates reality.
First, let’s start by defining the “observer effect,” because it’s the widely accepted idea that Vedral is smashing apart. The observer effect is the idea that simply observing or measuring something inevitably alters it. One classic example is a tire pressure gauge. By checking tire pressure, you’re allowing a small amount of air to escape; thus, by merely observing/measuring, you have altered the subject.
A Physicist Says Quantum Physics May Be Stranger Than the Observer Effect
According to Vedral, the observer effect has been badly mangled by decades of internet philosophy and stoner dorm-room interpretations of quantum mechanics. The simplified version says that particles exist in multiple states until someone observes them, causing reality to “collapse” into a single outcome.
The idea became so popular and widely accepted, largely for the wrong reasons, that it even trickled down into New Age spirituality, where people try to manifest wealth with positive vibes, assuming that they can pull the strings of the universe with their mere acknowledgment of said strings.
The observer effect is a very human-centric concept that may even seem a bit arrogant. It puts us front and center in the forces of the universe, assuming that our mere presence of a natural act is enough for these forces to change the way they work as if they were trying to impress us, like when your boss walks by, so you start working extra hard.
Vedral says that’s nonsense, and that observation is nothing special. Consciousness doesn’t bend reality. Interactions do. Any kind of interaction. A photon hitting sunglasses, an electron colliding with an atom, and light entering your eye are all definite events that will happen whether or not a human is paying attention.
Vedral stuck with the example of a photon hitting someone’s sunglasses to make his point. He argues that quantum mechanics states that two separate realities can exist at the same time: in one branch, a photon passes through the lens and reaches your eye, and in another, it is deflected away by the sunglasses. Both versions of “you” continue to march along separate quantum paths.
Vlatko Vedral is basically arguing that quantum physics doesn’t say humans magically create reality just by looking at things. Instead, reality is constantly changing us through every interaction we have with the world. You are changing because you have become part of one possible outcome rather than another.
Vedral then takes the idea even further, suggesting that all these alternate versions of reality still technically exist and may even influence one another under very specific conditions. In simple terms, there may be countless slightly different versions of you constantly being created by every tiny interaction you have with the world, most of which you’ll never notice.
It’s… a lot to wrap your head around. It’s the kind of thing you probably shouldn’t even begin to contemplate before you’ve had your morning coffee, or five morning coffees and an Adderall.
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