In “Does Quantum Physics Make it Easier to Believe in God?” (Big Questions Online, , July 10, 2012 ), physicist Stephen Barr offers an interesting argument:
That’s why, when Peierls was asked whether a machine could be an “observer,” he said no, explaining that “the quantum mechanical description is in terms of knowledge, and knowledge requires somebody who knows.” Not a purely physical thing, but a mind.
But what if one refuses to accept this conclusion, and maintains that only physical entities exist and that all observers and their minds are entirely describable by the equations of physics? Then the quantum probabilities remain in limbo, not 0 and 100% (in general) but hovering somewhere in between. They never get resolved into unique and definite outcomes, but somehow all possibilities remain always in play. One would thus be forced into what is called the “Many Worlds Interpretation” (MWI) of quantum mechanics.
But only in 70 percent of the resulting universes, in which case 30 percent of the resulting universes are … oh heck, von Neumann was right. There IS a backstop to all this and the mind is real. . More.
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