Bringing back an old thread... >.>
I was reminded of this following the recent post I made on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics in that "measurement causes collapse of the wavefunction" or whatever that thing is. Since I've left this thread, I've come across further reading on the subject of QM, surprise, surprise, and feel that I at least have a better understanding of the subject, although not nearly enough to start teaching it or anything.
The main issue I'd like to bring up here is that concerning the whole idea of a detector and a conscious observer being the "same" essential thing back in the top of this page (2) is that there have been experiments that have shown that there doesn't require to be a measurement observed by a conscious observer, just that it was made for the interference to disappear. Or at least, that is what I've read. The explanation of this that comes to mind is this one:
Distinct Configurations. The
full sequence on that site is worth a read (*cough* joelr *cough*
).
As for the rest of this thread, it's been a while and the details of the discussion are rusty.... Maybe for a later time.