Roland Karlsson wrote:
"Tom" wrote in :

There is no such thing as objective reality. Reality exists only
insofar as it is observed (by us).

Reality is what is. Objective reality is what's perceived,
imagined,
sensed etc. Objective reality does require an observer, reality
itself
does not.



The problem is that Quantum Theory requires an observer
for wave functions to collapse to a definte state. Before
observation, wave functions are only a probability. This
is not some uninteresting theoretic mumbo jumbo. Quantum
Theory (that accurately describes our world as far as we know)
require it. If we remove observers and try to solve the
equations in the theory, it does not work. If you understand
the mathematics behind it - it is easy to show.

But - there is no definite answer to what an observer is.
Mxmaniac says that it has to be a human (or at least concious)
to be an observer. As far as I know this is not so. An observer
is anything that can be used to determine the collapsed state.

Take a flower. It is hit by photons. Otherwise it would not grow.
So - the flower is a photon detector. If mankind disapeared at
least I am sure that the flower still detects photons. And the
concious of a flower is doubtful.

You can go even further than that. A piece of rock get hotter
when it has been hit by a photon. So - piece of rock is also
a photon detector. So - the piece of rock collapses wave functions.

Now, of course, a piece of rock also is a wave function that has to
collapse to a piece of rock. And it is here it gets tricky. But,
on the other hand - so are we.

Some people tries to make metaphysics of this and says that the
difference is that humans has something more than a material body.
Something that is us - our soul. It should be this "us" that keeps
our wave function collapsed - and then also can collapse other
wave functions. In this case - the Universe disaperas when all
humans are gone. Not likely IMHO.

You are right, its not likely because end of humanity does not mean end
of consciousness. Humans are merely_one_ kind of conscious beings.
There are several other kinds.In fact one theory is that the whole of
our planet and perhaps the universe is a conscious super organism of
which we are a small part somewhat like a group of cells in a body
which consists of millions of live cells of various kinds.


The new view I have heard here is that the Universe is uninteresting
without "us". Ok - maybe. But interesting or not, I belive it
is still here if we go.

Consciousness never dies. Only the body stops working and disintegrates
when life force leaves the body.