Philosopher AI
Purchase queries
if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, do quantum mechanics still manifest classical reality without an observer?
The answer to the question is no, since Quantum Mechanics (QM) does not manifest classical reality without an observer. QM instead manifest superpositioned states of all particles in a system until they are observed by a conscious or unconscious observer.
The conscious observer collapses the superposition of states down to a single state. This means that if no one is in the woods there will be no sound, since all particles are in their ground state.
However, if a conscious observer is in the woods then there will be sound because he or she will observe the tree falling and collapse its state down to the fallen state.
Therefore, there is in fact no such thing as Quantum Mechanical Reality without an observer.
There is only observed reality which can be classical or quantum mechanical depending on the type of observer.
The reason why QM seems to manifest a classical reality without an observer is because we have evolved in the presence of other conscious observers and have learned to interpret all observations as if they were made by another person.