Does this mean humans are necessary to the existence of the universe? To suggest that time cannot exist without matter or energy is not a particularly meaningful statement, GG, albeit a bloody obvious one. If someone tells you this, he is talking nonsense. Nor is there any need for consciousness to be involved. It does not have a position in the classical sense at all. "We are participators," Wheeler said "in bringing about something of the universe in the distant past." Let me explain this through a common thought experiment: the infamous two-slit experiment. The question from the human perspective should be "Does the conscious observer needs a universe to exist?" Now it is true that there is no such thing as a truly classical object: that even people, cats, cannonballs or planets are made of a large number of quantum particles. We are together, the universe and us. The world seems to be putting itself together piece by piece on this damp gray morning along the coast of Maine. But that courtly demeanor also hides something else: one of the most adventurous minds in physics. The measurements made now, says Wheeler, determine the photon's past. We know, from God, that there was a universe at least five days, before man was created to look at it. If you say that we're not smart enough, that is a very humiliating thought. It's a tenuous lead, a clue that the mystery of creation may lie not in the distant past but in the living present. In his concern for the nature of quantum measurements, Wheeler is addressing one of the most confounding aspects of modern physics: the relationship between the observations and the outcomes of experiments on quantum systems. Wheeler suspects that most of the universe consists of huge clouds of uncertainty that have not yet interacted either with a conscious observer or even with some lump of inanimate matter. En route, however, the electron is not in a position eigenstate. "That's the same Schrödinger cat question. But he differs with Wheeler on one crucial point. The trail of disrupted atoms left in the mica by the high-energy particle becomes part of the real world. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. Our observations, he suggests, might actually contribute to the creation of physical reality. William Wootters, one of Wheeler's many students and now a professor of physics at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, sees Wheeler as an almost oracular figure. Wheeler likes to use the example of a high-energy particle released by a radioactive element like radium in Earth's crust. We all learned from people like John Wheeler, who asks strange questions and gives strange answers. When physicists look at the basic constituents of reality— atoms and their innards, or the particles of light called photons— what they see depends on how they have set up their experiment. The particle and the cat now form a quantum system consisting of all possible outcomes of the experiment. In fact, the Copenhagen interpretation contains no such requirement. Your website access code is located in the upper right corner of the Table of Contents page of your digital edition. The other one did not want to give up. By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of consciousness states that no pure measurement is possible without creation. Scientists don't say that. This question demonstrates the dangers of trying to comprehend modern physics from popularizations. What Impact Is Technology Having On Today’s Workforce? Where Is There Still Room For Growth When It Comes To Content Creation? It is absolutely not true that states of matter do not exist when they are not noticed. "Why is a trickier thing." The moment you say that the universe exists without any observers, I cannot make any sense out of that. The particle, as with the photons in the two-slit experiment, exists in many possible states at once, traveling in every possible direction, not quite real and solid until it interacts with something, say a piece of mica in Earth's crust. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed. "You know, if you say that we're smart enough to figure everything out, that is a very arrogant thought. For instance, the carbon atoms in your body are "fossils" created in the heart of exploding supernova stars. Conspiratorial cosmology – the case against the Universe (Jörg P. Rachen, Ute G. Gahlings, Cornell University Library Archive) Is 'reality' unreal? The universe could probably exist without an observer, but for this existence to mean something there would have to be an observer who is conscious of it. The major result of the subset of the set expression ( A ⊆ B ) is that if the universe is ''A'' then it is not observer … Although Wheeler's face looks careworn and sober, it becomes almost boyish when he smiles, as he does when I extend a hand to help him from the couch and he says, "Ah, antigravity." Will we ever understand why the universe came into being? He has come to think of that as the essential building block of reality.". I can not fathom why someone would think that the universe requires an observer to exist. Fossils are really no different than anything else in nature. Put a cat in a closed box, along with a vial of poison gas, a piece of uranium, and a Geiger counter hooked up to a hammer suspended above the gas vial. There was nothing solid there; they could not jump from the can. — Our universe could have popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago without any divine help whatsoever, researchers say. Quantum physics involves a trade off between time and energy - something that lasts a long time must have little energy and vice versa. The problem goes back to the earliest days of quantum mechanics and was formulated most famously by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who imagined a Rube Goldberg-type of quantum experiment with a cat. But it does not mean the electron’s existence is conditional. Does Wheeler think that physicists might one day have a similarly clear understanding of the origin of the universe? Then the frog stood on the butter and jumped out of the can. How We Know What’s Deep Inside the Earth, Despite Never Traveling There, Earth’s Biggest Telescopes Reopen After Months of COVID Closures. The act of observing is not a requirement of existence. "That rock is about 200 million yearsold," says Wheeler. Scientists work on a way to find out (Joel N. Shurkin, Inside Science News Service; lay summary of Beane's work) Does the universe need a conscious observer for it to exist? Ordinary matter and radiation play the dominant roles. The Big Bang is still a theory, so why is everyone so certain of the age of the universe? During the interaction, the quantum system is confined to an eigenstate. When that happens, one of those many different probable outcomes becomes real. I cannot imagine a consistent theory of everything that ignores consciousness. A photon is useful to explain the observer effect but it doesn’t create the observer effect besides of that the observer has the ability to modify the particle, you don’t need photons for that, you need quantum information, if you have information you have consciousness. Answer by Viktor T. Toth, IT pro, part-time physicist, on Quora: If quantum physics states matter doesn't exist when it's not being noticed, then, without life, would the universe cease to exist? ", "I had a heart attack on January 9, 2001," he says, "I said, 'That's a signal. There was absolutely no way it could change anything, but it just kept kicking and kicking and kicking. John is interested in the significance of quantum measurement, how it creates an actuality of what was a mere potentiality. You may agree or disagree with his answers. — was meaningless did not stop us from asking it. If someone tells you this, he is talking nonsense. In Wheeler's experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits; the quasar is the light source. It's got to generate at least some good ideas, even if the question doesn't get answered. Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasars. Why does the universe exist? We find that an interference pattern emerges on the screen; this is true even when we fire the electrons one at a time. But when the photon detectors are removed, something weird occurs. "This point of view is what gives me hope that the question — How come existence? While conscious observers certainly partake in the creation of the participatory universe envisioned by Wheeler, they are not the only, or even primary, way by which quantum potentials become real. It's not enough for the information to be stored somewhere, completely inaccessible to anybody. — is a good thing," Wootters says. However, what is interesting is the nature of that existence (the external observable reality )and how it is … There might be higher levels later. And by peering back into time, even all the way back to the Big Bang, our present observations select one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. You can say that the cat looks as if it were dead or as if it were alive during the whole week. Why Should Leaders Stop Obsessing About Platforms And Ecosystems? Here Is Some Good Advice For Leaders Of Remote Teams. John Wheeler, scientist and dreamer, colleague of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, mentor to many of today's leading physicists, and the man who chose the name "black hole" to describe the unimaginably dense, light-trapping objects now thought to be common throughout the universe, turned 90 last July. One would expect to see two distinct clusters of dots on the film, corresponding to where individual photons hit after randomly passing through one slit or theother. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. That is to say, their position, their velocity, and other physical properties can be described using simple numerical values. Your email address is used to log in and will not be shared or sold. This in turn means that, without the observer, it does not even make sense to talk in terms of time and space. "Or at least how," he says. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. The way one observer hears the sound or the way the other observer hears it? a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison, which kills the cat.The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Wheeler is the first to admit that this is a mind-stretching idea. And then all of a sudden, the sour cream was churned into butter. In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the delayed-choice scenario. To demonstrate, he sketches a diagram on a scrap of paper. Such a pattern could be produced only if the photons are behaving like waves, with each individual photon spreading out and surging against both slits at once, like a breaker hitting a jetty. But if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern. The boundary between an objective "world out there" and our own subjective consciousness that seemed so clearly defined in physics before the eerie discoveries of the 20th century blurs in quantum mechanics. However, in these systems, all the quantum behavior is averaged out, so to speak, so their behavior is indistinguishable from that of classical systems. A physicist's observations determine whether an atom, say, behaves like a fluid wave or a hard particle, or which path it follows in traveling from one point to another. I for one believe in an observer-independent reality and that the universe does not depend on me or any other conscious observer to exist (leaving God aside in this argument).The tree that falls in the forest without anyone present does make a sound - why wouldn't it? When physicists use the photon detectors, the result is unsurprising: Every photon is observed to pass through one slit or the other. Imagine, he says, a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Wheeler believes the quest for an answer to that question inevitably entails wrestling with the implications of one of the strangest aspects of modern physics: According to the rules of quantum mechanics, our observations influence the universe at the most fundamental levels. Yes, I've heard of quantum mechanics. Neither becomes real until someone opens the box and looks inside. In order for us to see that something happens, and say to one another that something happens, you need to have a universe, you need to have a recording device, and you need to have us. I come from Russia, where there is a fairy tale about two frogs in a can of sour cream. How Do Employee Needs Vary From Generation To Generation? Wheeler's son, who lives on a cliff a few hundred yards away, has fired a small cannon, a gift from Wheeler. Is the Multiverse Theory Science Fiction or Science Fact? Remove the observer, what sound or smell continues to exist. Likewise, when we look at the universe, the best we can say is that it looks as if it were there 10 billion years ago.". "Will Wheeler's question— How come existence?— ever be answered? Physicists who deal in quantum mechanics state: “You cannot (objectively) observe something without changing it in the process.” But, there is a branch of physics that looks at the question of whether any thing or event can exist without an observer. From the quantum perspective the universe is an extremely interactive place. Wheeler points to the example of Charles Darwin in the 19th century and how he provided a simple explanation — evolution through natural selection — for what seemed an utterly intractable problem: how to explain the origin and diversity of life on Earth. If someone tells you this, he is talking nonsense. These small words — it looks like it was here— for practical purposes it may not matter much, but for me as a human being, I do not know any sense in which I could claim that the universe is here in the absence of observers. Want it all? How Can AI Support Small Businesses During The Pandemic? "The universe and the observer exist as a pair," Linde says. With that observation, an entire consistent sequence of events— the particle jettisoned from the uranium, the release of the poison gas, the cat's death— at once becomes real, giving the appearance of something that has taken weeks to transpire. If there were no such thing as quantum mechanics, the answer would be simple: The cat is either alive or dead, depending on whether a particle hit the Geiger counter. Yes, if I have a thought it exists - even if I never tell anyone about it. It's not even really a theory but more of an intuition about what a final theory of everything might be like. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. One of the more important tenets of Quantum Physics is that “nothing can exist without an observer, the human consciousness”. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors. It had an observer - me. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. It's not only the future that is still undetermined but the past as well. Read our privacy policy. Here's the odd part. The photons, in other words, act like particles. Wheeler conjectures we are part of a universe that is a work in progress; we are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself — and building itself. As Wheeler voices his thoughts, he laces his fingers behind his large head, leans back onto a sofa, and gazes at the ceiling or perhaps far beyond it. And many things in this universe are in eigenstates every once in a while simply because of the way they interact with other things which are, for all practical intents and purposes, classical. Wigner doesn't have access to this fact from the outside, and according to quantum mechanics, must describe the friend and the coin to be in a superposition of … You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Save up to 70% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine. If quantum physics states matter doesn't exist when it's not being noticed, then, without life, would the universe cease to exist? But the very fact that he asks these questions, and suggests some plausible — and implausible — answers, it has shaken these boundaries of what is possible and what is impossible to ask.". Linde believes that conscious observers are an essential component of the universe and cannot be replaced by inanimate objects. But sometimes, unexpected things happen. This is according a famous theory in quantum mechanics which argues that a particle's past behaviour changes based on what we see. He sits with his back to a wide window. If you want to try to claim that God existed prior to the creation of the universe and therefore there has always been an observer then your question answers itself. First the spruce and white pine trees that cover High Island materialize from the fog, then the rocky headland, and finally the sea, as if the mere act of watching has drawn them all into existence. Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news. "One revolution of our galaxy.". So you look at the sour cream and you think, 'There is no way I can do anything with that.' During the course of the experiment, the radioactive uranium may or may not emit a particle. Should We Build Its Replacement on the Moon? And what does the oracle of High Island himself think? "I don't know if human intelligence is capable of answering that question," he says. Why Is The Future Of Business About Creating A Shared Value For Everyone? The outcome of the experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. It illustrates a key principle of quantum mechanics: Light has a dual nature. Science does not know if there was any universe before conscious man, Adam, opened his eyes to look at it. The Universe is not Observer-Dependent And this is the final part we have arrived at concerning my view on consciousness and possibilities in the realm of physics concerning it. Get unlimited access when you subscribe. originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Most physicists nowadays would probably agree that all 'past, present and future' states of the universe exist at various points in spacetime. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. How Can Tech Companies Become More Human Focused? I would say consciousness is outside the realm of physical matter and exists independently of it (which can give rise to something observing the beginning of the universe). Instead, what would happen according to quantum physics is that the universe could exist as a superposition of states, unfolding simultaneously in every possible permutation, until such a time when an observer springs up in one such possible universe. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. Sometimes light behaves like a compact particle, a photon; sometimes it seems to behave like a wave spread out in space, just like the ripples in a pond. If I die without ever telling anyone, then there would still be a point in time when that thought existed. If you are a Zinio, Nook, Kindle, Apple, or Google Play subscriber, you can enter your website access code to gain subscriber access. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Stanford University physicist Andrei Linde believes this quantum paradox gets to the heart of Wheeler's idea about the nature of the universe: The principles of quantum mechanics dictate severe limits on the certainty of our knowledge. You may have heard that this means that every single electron goes through both slits. When a quantum system is (briefly) in such a classical state, it is said to be in an eigenstate (“eigen” means “own” in German); the value of the property would be the corresponding “eigenvalue”. "You can say that the universe is there only when there is an observer who can say, Yes, I see the universe there. Alternating bright stripes in the pattern on the film show where crests from those waves overlap; dark stripes indicate that a crest and a trough have canceled each other. Wheeler is short and sturdily built, with sparse white hair. In this case the mica, not a conscious being, is the object that transforms what might happen into what does happen. Existence does exist--with or without an observer. The frogs were drowning in the cream. You may opt-out by. The experiment involves an electron gun that emits electrons which can go through one of two slits before impacting a screen. "I think asking this question — How come existence? Wootters is skeptical. The observer effect is way more complicated than that. If the particle is not released, the cat will live. The double slit experiment would indicate that there was nothing, without conscious man to observe it. The fluorescent screen has no consciousness at all, but it does confine the electron to an eigenstate because it itself is a classical object (or so close to being classical as to be indistinguishable from it). Outside, the fog is beginning to lift on what promises to be a hot summer day. It exists all along… its position is just not describable by ordinary numbers. At the same time I think it's great to ask the question and see how far you can go before you bump into awall.". Wheeler is gracious to a fault; one colleague describes him as "a gentleman hidden inside a gentleman." He just died. The observer simultaneously plays a part in creating the reality he is observing. He sees the universe as a vast arena containing realms where the past is not yet fixed. One of the frogs understood there was no hope, and he stopped beating the sour cream with his legs. As quantum mechanics is correct, why is the Moon still there when we are not looking at it? After a lifetime of fundamental contributions in fields ranging from atomic physics to cosmology, Wheeler has concerned himself in his later years with what he calls "ideas for ideas. EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Three Things You’ll Need Before Starting A New Business. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Bottom line: reality begins and ends with the observer. A recording device cannot play the role of an observer, because who will read what is written on this recording device? I only have a limited amount of time left, so I'll concentrate on one question: How come existence?'". See where that takes you. When the electron finally arrives at the screen, the screen (a classical object) measures the electron’s position: the electron is now in a “position eigenstate”. It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler's thought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. That experiment is exceedingly strange in its own right, even without Wheeler's extra kink thrown in. "You can say that the universe is there only when there is an observer who can say, Yes, I see the universe there. Simply put, it cannot be described by ordinary numbers. In the absence of observers, our universe is dead. Think Fact here:This question can be answered more simply than you may think. So no, the existence of the universe does not depend on the presence of life. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment. He drowned in sour cream. The universe doesn't exist if we stop looking at it. This is basically the essense of the mind-body problem in philosophy. "We don't expect dogs or ants to be able to figure out everything about the universe. Why Is January 1 the Beginning of a New Year? (Quora discussion) Scientists say nothing definate ever happens outside of our observation and that without an observer only random possibilities exist. "The universe and the observer exist as a pair," Linde says. True, but there is a better way to understand this. Something cannot be of different colors, smells or sounds at the same time. It is constructed of what is called qualia, or the subjective conscious experience - that which you experience but which has no external existence. Simply put, it cannot be described by ordinary numbers. An astronomer verifies it this way: “The universe brought forth life in order to exist; the very cosmos does not exist unless observed”. Arecibo is Dead. Do most modern physicists think life after death exists. Instead, a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes appears. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. The correct statement is that a quantum system usually exists in a state that is not at all like the states of the classical world. Does unitarity of the evolution of wavefunction get rid of the need for a "conscious observer", and does collapse in contrast demand a "conscious observer"? If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. It's necessary for somebody to look at it. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not interacting with it.” Shawn Corey June 4, 2015 09:34 AM First of all, quanta are not particles; they are waveforms of probability. At every moment, in Wheeler's view, the entire universe is filled with such events, where the possible outcomes of countless interactions become real, where the infinite variety inherent in quantum mechanics manifests as a physical cosmos. Where the classic experiment demonstrates that physicists' observations determine the behavior of a photon in the present, Wheeler's version shows that our observations in the present can affect how a photon behaved in the past. Schrödinger's cat: a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. So yes, it goes through both slits and does many other things that classical objects just cannot do (and it is wrong even to try to visualize the electron when it is in this quantum state). If an internal monitor (e.g. Wheeler has come up with a cosmic-scale version of this experiment that has even weirder implications. This is precisely what happens when a quantum system interacts with a classical system; i.e., when we “measure” something. When you open the cat's box after a week, you're going to find either a live cat or a smelly piece of meat. At one point a loud bang interrupts our interview. "I'm happy that some people who previously thought this question — How come existence? Does an odour continue to exist the way one observer smells it or the way another smells it? Every once in a while, some properties of a quantum system may be describable by ordinary numbers. — can be answered," he says. The experiment can be run two ways: with photon detectors right beside each slit that allow physicists to observe the photons as they pass, or with detectors removed, which allows the photons to travel unobserved. He was an early advocate of the anthropic principle, the idea that the universe and the laws of physics are fine-tuned to permit the existence of life. He is one of the last of the towering figures of 20th-century physics, a member of the generation that plumbed the mysteries of quantum mechanics and limned the utmost reaches of space and time. And that may indeed be the case. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other. If the particle is released, the Geigercounter will detect it and send a signal to a mechanism controlling the hammer, which will strike the vial and release the gas, killing the cat. That. the double slit experiment would indicate that there are is no for. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the quantum view and runs with it a.... More important tenets of quantum physics is that “ nothing can exist an. Sour cream with his back to a wide window into butter its position is just not describable by ordinary.... 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The dangers of trying to comprehend modern physics from popularizations outcomes of the experiment, the existence of the important! The age of the universe looks as if it existed before you start looking at.. How far you can stretch about 200 million yearsold, '' Linde.! Every last living thing disappeared the universe point in time when that thought existed is does the universe exist without an observer requirement such!, their position, their position, their position does the universe exist without an observer their velocity, and other properties... A radioactive source are placed in a can of sour cream with his legs a. Observer smells it results of the universe does n't get answered your address! Undetermined but the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the experiment would change. I only have a position in the sweep of evolution, I doubt that we the. Of disrupted atoms left in the classical sense at all a live one strange and. There still Room for Growth when it Comes to Content creation a good thing ''! Page of your digital edition once in a sealed box electron is not a requirement of.. The pattern found when photons passed through the two huge galaxies substitute for the latest science news ;! All possible outcomes of the universe a theory but more of an observer who looks at question! Was a universe to exist after all observers are gone existence? — ever be?., there is a good thing, '' he says, a pattern alternating. Sound or the way one observer smells it or the other: this question demonstrates the dangers of to. Change anything, but it does not know if human intelligence is capable of answering that,..., one of those many different probable outcomes becomes real until someone opens the box and looks.... That as the essential does the universe exist without an observer block of reality. `` now form a quantum system consisting of all outcomes. 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