Rabbit’s hole

Reality and us

I have been thinking at something that got my attention some time ago and I finally decided to write about it.

Everything started with a video I saw on digg.com about the quantum state of electrons. Altough it seems childish, it really is interesting and it describes one of the basic phenomenons in quantum physics.

To give you a short description (if your laziness stops you from watching the movie) : electrons act as particles or waves , depending on whether an observer is quantifying or not their state.

The interesting question that I didn’t see until now is (if you have a some info, i’ll be glad to read / talk about it): what is an observer ? After all, the  electron passes in the presence of matter continuosly (the electron accelerator, the pattern of holes it goes through) while measuring it does not involve any special energy (light, radiation, everything can already exist in that space). If a certain combination of energy were to disrupt the wave state of the electron, then by chance it may arrive by itself, so we would have a mixed particle / wave comportment even when nobody is measuring it. So I am somehow reluctant to put an equal sign between observer and the measurment act / energy.
However, there is something different between the two cases - an inteligence (mainly, the guy doing the study) - is acting in the measurement. Maybe not process of mesure but the process of understanding influences the outcome.