• Slowy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What if a computer reviews the data and prints a readout? Is the program a consciousness for this purpose?

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Again, the theory would be that collapse (including the state of what is on the paper) occurs upon review of the paper.

      Consciousness collapse theories are particularly interesting in the context of the quantum eraser variations of the double slit experiment.

      Personally my favorite interpretations ever since reading the Asking photons where they’ve been paper have been ones incorporating forward and backwards wave functions like the two-state vector formalism or the transactional interpretation.

      It’s thought provoking to look at experimental results under different interpretation contexts, and is one of the things that frustrating in people thinking there’s merit to trying to “pick a team.”

      Not everything needs to be a team sport, and a variety of interpretations tends to be a good thing as each prompts different types of experiments by their various supporters.

    • kakes@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think so, from how kromem words it:

      (i.e. collapse occurs at the point you are reviewing the data).

      The person reading the data is the consciousness, and the collapse is deferred in this case.

      What I find interesting about this idea is: What if the computer were to take actions based on the data? Would the collapse occur at the point where agonist notices the effects of those actions? Does it occur when they logically link the action to the event?

      I could imagine this as a sliding scale, where in one end is something obvious (reading the data, or an indicator light) and on the other end not obvious at all (a circuit heating up slightly different due to the data being stored). Both of these things have effects in physical reality (presumably), so I wonder at what point in that scale are we would call it a “consciousness collapse”?