Can we Falsify the Consciousness-Causes-Collapse Hypothesis in Quantum Mechanics?
arXiv Preprint Archive September 2, 2016 via arXiv
Summary
The paper argues that proposals claiming to disprove the hypothesis that mind-matter interaction collapses the wave function are fundamentally flawed. It describes a general experimental setup that retains key features of those proposals and shows that even this broader setup cannot disprove the mind-matter collapse hypothesis. Under reasonable assumptions about consciousness, the hypothesis is unfalsifiable.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Quant-ph Physics.hist-ph Quantum foundations Measurement problem |
| Key finding | The mind-matter collapse hypothesis is unfalsifiable under reasonable assumptions about consciousness. |
Abstract
In this paper we examine some proposals to disprove the hypothesis that the interaction between mind and matter causes the collapse of the wave function, showing that such proposals are fundamentally flawed. We then describe a general experimental setup retaining the key features of the ones examined, and show that even a more general case is inadequate to disprove the mind-matter collapse hypothesis. Finally, we use our setup provided to argue that, under some reasonable assumptions about consciousness, such hypothesis is unfalsifiable.