The Observer

And the Unmoved Mover

In this essay I seek to explore the very edges of my understanding of the physical principles of reality, consciousness, and creation from a Christian perspective (be warned that considerable theosophy is inbound). To say I will be out over my skis would be an understatement. I offer this – at least for the moment – as more curiosity, and mind-bending exercise than as assertion of fact. It is little more than nebulous hypothesis, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless, and I do hope to develop these ideas over time.

The physicist-philosopher Erwin Schrödinger described the phenomenon of quantum superposition in the famous, if somewhat distasteful terms of the living-dead cat. In this conceptual experiment, meant to be descriptive of the odd behavior of the smallest known particles of matter, Schrödinger posited that in the circumstance of a cat being placed within a box involving poison, and random chance, and left there for a time that, until the moment that the box is open, and the state of the cat is “observed,” the cat is both alive and dead simultaneously.

This thought exercise is the hyper-macro version of a very real, and repeatedly proven micro marvel wherein sub-atomic particles – especially demonstrated with electrons – occupy all possible positions until they are “observed” through experiment. This is known as “quantum superposition,” or the existence of a thing in two or more distinct states of being until an “observation” is made of the thing; it is this “observation” that causes the quantum state to collapse, and the thing to adapt the single, observable state of classical physics. The standard example of quantum physics is in the electron that occupies multiple energy levels of the valence shell of an atom simultaneously.

The exact conditions for an “observation” to be made are highly disputed in physics and philosophy. The nature of the logical argument for the exact moment an “observation” is made, and a superposition collapses into a distinct state, is necessarily unfalsifiable, as the ultimate “observer” is always a person. The nature of philosophy is, rather obviously in retrospect, that no human knowledge can be gained until a human gains knowledge, i.e. if a machine were to make an “observation” of an experiment on superpositions the data recorded by that machine would not be known until a human made an “observation” of the machine, and therefore the machine, or rather the data, or perhaps the machine, data, and experiment, would be, theoretically, in superposition until “observed” by the person.

It is with this considerably wide berth for speculatory reason, and a moderate degree of uncertainty, that I posit that it is the nature of human consciousness itself that functions as the “observer” in this world that brings about the collapse of quantum superpositions, and thereby forces reality to take a tangible state of being. It seems, to me, extremely reasonable, but also rather elegant to posit that it is at the location intersecting the last known unknown, and the first known known that reality takes shape as a human being obtains the knowledge of what is, while also having the capacity to know what might have been in the alternative. I further speculate – with considerable cause – that it is the quantum-mechanical nature of our consciousness interacting with the world that contributes to, or perhaps entirely constitutes, the manner of thought known as “revelatory,” as our own mind is, in part, occupying superposition. It is here, in this dichotomy of knowing, and in this manner causing reality itself to take a definitive form, that I see echoes of the “knowledge of good and evil.”

It is not without considerable irony that I arrive at this hypothesis after having learned about the nature of quantum mechanics, and its application to living systems, through the study of evolutionary biology, and the hypothetical process of “organic chemical evolution” that seeks to negate God entirely. It was in the work of Scottish molecular biologist Johnjoe McFadden, Quantum Evolution: The New Science of Life, that I first encountered – two decades ago this year – the application of quantum principles to creation, evolution, and human consciousness. In this book it is argued that the failure of all human experimentation to bring about the spontaneous generation of self-replicating molecules from a replica “primordial soup” follows necessarily from the “observation” of the experiments. He argues that not for these “observations” the “primordial soup,” as it would have existed some few billion years ago, would have existed in quantum superposition. He then argues that this quantum superposition would have been subjected to Occam’s Razor such that the generation of replicating organic molecules came about by necessity, and with immediacy, thereby making the spontaneous generation of life in the absence of an “observer” a veritable inevitability.

At sixteen my eagerness to militate against creationism on behalf of the gods of Progress caused me to accept this anti-gospel as gospel, but now, with considerably more knowledge, experience, and, admittedly, a bit more girth I am happy to admit I always – deep down – found flaw in the theoretical representation of a system as an “observer” of itself capable of collapsing quantum states spontaneously. I know this is fairly widely believed to be possible, but I just don’t buy it, and I stand on the unfalsifiability of this position as both useful, and, perhaps, as evidence of correctness.

While I may no longer believe in the conclusions reached by McFadden, I do believe he was on a quite genius path before atheistic faith took priority a priori. The application of quantum principles to macro systems (in this case to molecules) in the absence of an “observer” sets the stage for the application of these principles to any, or indeed all of creation in the similar absence of an “observer.” If it is correct that it is human consciousness interacting with the world in the capacity of an “observer” that causes the collapse of quantum systems into a single, tangible state of being then Creationism is, in fact, quite readily capable of defeating all arguments against it. Here I hypothesize that it could have either been on the creation of mankind, or, and I think it more likely, on mans fall that the introduction of the human capacity for observation into the broader world that all of existence within mans reach was forced from a superposition, into a single, and discernable state we know as objective reality.

It is with this understanding of quantum states that all of Genesis comports readily, and literally with what we postulate through modern science. Why might methods of radiological dating of elements suggest millions, or billions of years, instead of the scriptural thousands? Why are there so many extinct species whose bones we have recovered from the dust with no record from early humans? Why does geology suggest eons between the times of the single continent Pangea, and our current state of continental drift? Perhaps it is because within a quantum state of superposition time itself translates very little to our understanding. Perhaps it was only upon the introduction of the faculties of mankind into the corrupted creation that creation itself was forced at once to comport to classical physics. In this way the atoms formed only days, or centuries earlier may have nonetheless gone through millions of half-life cycles, species that existed in perpetual life in superposition for a day, or a millennium, might now be bones thirty feet deep having succumbed to competition (seemingly) millions of years ago, and continents that kissed only a moment ago are suddenly separated by deep seas.

You see, within superposition all things are not only possible, but all things are true at once. On being forced out of the quantum realm it is little wonder that things exist as they do. For things to have become what we might envision as the “perfect” alignment of our world with Genesis as investigated through our science under such circumstances would be like asking somebody to pick a number between one and infinity before rolling infinite dies of infinite sides with infinite hands and expecting that number to hit – not likely. Though, perhaps it is only because our minds are entangled with the quantum realm that we are even aware of that number in the first place.