Consciousness Makes Reality: A Philosophical, but not Quantum Mechanical Idea

Or, what does the term “Quantum Superposition” actually mean?

The concept of consciousness creating reality is a philosophical theory that stands apart from quantum-mechanical principles. The definition of Quantum Superposition differs from what most people understand.

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For a long time, I believed in the “popular” concept of “duality” and “observer’s effect”. Feynman’s lecture series on physics opened my eyes. Let me explain.

This story explains our incorrect understanding of quantum superposition when we combine it with philosophical concepts. It also shows how Schrödinger’s cat evolved from being a sarcastic remark into a fundamental concept in modern physics.

The double-slit experiment, which appears frequently in discussions, requires our attention for a review. A summary follows for your convenience:

The process of sending electrons through a barrier with two slits produces an unusual phenomenon. The electron should select between the left and right openings, creating two distinct bands on the detector screen, corresponding to the two slits. But the electrons produce an interference pattern which waves alone should generate. Scientists started observing these electrons. They installed detection systems to observe when electrons selected their paths. The interference pattern disappeared, and two distinct bands emerged. The electrons start behaving as particles at this point. The interference pattern reappears when scientists stop observing the electrons.

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You might be thinking, “I know all about it: Electron acts like a wave and makes interference patterns on the screen, but when someone looks at it, it starts to act like a particle.” So, consciousness or an observer is making reality. The “observer effect” might or might not be genuine — we are not going into that debate. All I am trying to tell you is that it is not a concept introduced by quantum physics.

The Cat: The Most Famous Thought Experiment in Physics

Two of the most influential scientists in history, Erwin Schrodinger and Albert Einstein, created a thought experiment because they strongly disapproved of the statements made by quantum mechanics. It is about a cat, a radioactive atom, a poison vial inside a sealed box. The radioactive atom within the system has a 50% probability to decay. If the Geiger counter detects decay, it activates a poison release mechanism that could result in the death of the cat. When the box is opened, the cat can be either dead or alive.

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The ability of particles to exist in multiple states, simultaneously, like the cat is both dead and alive, before measurement, raises questions. This also alludes to the duality in reality, but that vanishes when observed, producing a single state — again misinterpreted as the observer “creating” things. Reportedly, Einstein said, “You mean the moon is not there when I am not looking?”

According to quantum mechanics, the atom may or may not decay until someone opens the box. The atom exists in two states simultaneously because it decays and remains intact at the same time of measurement. The cat exists in a state that combines both life and death according to this reasoning. The state of the atom is called “quantum superposition” in quantum physics.

We are mistaken when we think that quantum superposition means “both states at once.” No, it doesn’t. Superposition is something far stranger — a situation that can’t be articulated in terms of anything we know or can see or can be visually represented.

It’s like asking “what colour is Wednesday?” to ask “which slit did the electron go through?” The electron didn’t go through either slit, the left slit, the right slit or both the slits simultaneously. It did something else totally different, something that our vocabulary can’t even begin to describe.

We call this “superposition” not because it’s a super-position, but because we needed a word for something that doesn’t exist in our comprehension. Scientists use the term “superposition” because they needed a label for this phenomenon.

Why You’re Not in Superposition Right Now

The apparent absurdity of Schrödinger’s cat paradox stems from its actual nature rather than the reason Schrödinger intended. All big objects, including cats, maintain continuous contact with their surrounding environment. A macroscopic object experiences trillions of physical interactions between air molecules, photons, heat radiation and so on, all the time.

Any encounter between objects leads to superposition decoherence, which makes all possible superposition states lose their coherence (not collapse as most literature describes). The speed at which large objects interact with their environment makes superposition impossible to observe at our scale.

Quantum mechanics operates without interruption for all objects regardless of their size. The reason huge objects fail to demonstrate quantum effects is that they cannot maintain sufficient separation from each other.

The Real Magic: How Superposition Makes Our World

The concept that Schrödinger ridiculed actually created the existence of you and all other living beings.

The process of electron movement between atoms during molecular formation does not involve traditional sharing or jumping between atoms. The atoms in superposition states maintain multiple positions simultaneously. The quantum superposition state enables covalent bonding to occur between atoms.

The existence of superposition enables water molecules to form, DNA to maintain structure, proteins to fold properly… This makes modern chemistry possible.

The cat experiment, which was intended to mock quantum theory, actually demonstrates the fundamental reason life exists in the universe.

What This Means for the Real World

The fundamental laws of reality operate at a level which our natural brain cannot understand according to quantum mechanics. Our brains developed to protect us from threats and find food instead of understanding subatomic particle behavior.

The deep nature of quantum mechanics does not indicate errors in the theory but rather its profound complexity. The universe operates independently of human comprehension. Human intelligence reaches its peak when mathematical expressions are developed to describe things which our minds cannot visualize.

The Bottom Line

The concept of Schrödinger’s cat remains one of the top educational tools for physics education despite being widely misunderstood by the public. The concept does not imply that cats exist in a state of being both alive and dead simultaneously. The quantum world operates through superposition, but our classical world operates under different principles.

The paradox of Schrödinger’s cat exists because the universe operates through mechanisms that differ so profoundly from our understanding that we need fictional cats to begin discussing these phenomena.

Science reveals to us that reality exists in ways which surpass our individual capacity to comprehend.

P.S.: The readers are encouraged to read “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume III”

What aspects of quantum mechanics impress you the most? Your comments are welcome in the section below.

About the author: Dr Debdarsan Niyogi is an AI researcher and writer exploring the crossroads of modern AI, cognitive science, and philosophy. His work aims to make complex ideas accessible and thought-provoking. Follow him for more articles that examine profound questions starting from ground zero.

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