Quote:
Originally Posted by Lateralus
It's not possible to be completely disconnected and still observe an event. I think that our presence alters the event in some fashion, but how exactly? That's beyond my understanding, though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's somehow related to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in the 10th or 11th dimension, or something along those lines.
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I like Sidney Coleman's explanation (in the "in your face" video). Basically, the wave function doesn't actually collapse, but since the measuring aparatus is itself a quantum-mechanical system, it is always true the measuement will measure a collapsed state.
The cat actually is in a superposition of dead and alive states, but being quantum mechanical systems ourselves, we will notice him in either a completely alive or completely dead state (as amazingly sci-fi-ish as that seems).